


Dragons Over the Ice

by piplupcola



Series: Over the Ice [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, M/M, Might become a series in the future, Other Fandoms Not Mentioned in Tags, Post-How To Train Your Dragon (2010), Universe Alteration, Worldbuilding, multi-chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-03 00:53:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2832260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piplupcola/pseuds/piplupcola
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a few weeks before Snoggletog and everything seems well. But a casual walk in the woods one evening turns Hiccup's life around when he finds a boy encased under the ice. The Moon has gave Hiccup the task of protecting him till the time comes. But when would that time come for the mysterious boy named Jack Frost? And why was Hiccup the only human to be able to see him? Hijack Universe Alteration</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Boy Under the Ice

**Author's Note:**

> All characters and their original movies belong to their respective creators. 
> 
> Find my original post of this series here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8828817/1/Dragons-Over-the-Ice

This is Berk, boasting the kind of balmy, fun-in-the-sun climate that will give you frostbite on your spleen. The one upside is our annual holiday. We call it Snoggletog. Why we chose such a stupid name remains a mystery. And after 300 years, it still does. It's been a year since the chaos last Snoggletog, and things are getting more extreme, as usual. The dragons are getting their annual migration holiday to lay their eggs, including a 2 ton luxurious Viking ship to bring their hatchlings back in the spring, courtesy of me and Gobber. Some of the dragon chose to stay behind, like Stormfly and surprisingly, Hookfang. Toothless had also insisted to stay behind, even though I had already fixed him a new automatic tail for the day. I was pretty reluctant to let him stay, since all the other dragons would be away, but if that stubborn reptile really wants to stay, I guess I don't really have much choice do I?

It was cool evening, and Snoggletog was right around the corner. The dragons were long sent off, with tears and well wishes, and a bit of relief for the other villagers. Toothless and I had our usual morning flight, practicing the new tricks we were working on. Lunch was a grilled fish on the cliffs, and another round of flying continued on. It was only until the sun started to set did we actually went home to Berk. But Toothless didn't look particularly tired.

"Hey buddy, think you're done for the day?" I asked as we slowly made our descend to Berk.

Toothless shook his head slightly, meaning a no. I was hoping he would say yes, since I was quite tired from a whole day of flying, but an active toothless, meant a sleepless night of hearing the roof shake. I looked around to see what we could do. Then I noticed. The forest. The place where Toothless and I met. A perfect place for a good evening stroll to end the day.

We landed at Berk and continued our way towards the forest. There were many trees in the area so it wasn't good for landing, not to mention I had to tell dad we would be late. We made a quick stop by the house to get my snow shoes for my leg. It would be hard to walk through 3 feet of snow with a scrawny piece of metal. As I left the house, dad walked in, in his arms carrying a stack of firewood big enough to keep the fireplace going for a month.

"Not coming back for dinner son?" He asked as he dumped the whole mountain at the corner of the room."

"Urr... Yeah. Me and toothless are gonna take a walk in the woods, so we won't be having any." I replied, before whispering something into his ear. "And also, toothless made me have some of his regurgitated fish."

He smiled that feisty Viking smile, though revealing a very awkward look on his face. Most likely his worry on me being forced to eat undigested raw meat because of a dragon. "Okay son. Be careful."

* * *

The forest was very different than the last time we visited in the fall. It was dark, but had a strange mysterious glow as the moonlight bounced off the white fallen snow, making them shimmer like the reflections of the star lit sky. Many of the trees were bare and grey, but some, the taller ones were evergreen, building up the height of the forest with its majestic large trunks and deep green leaves. Snow had found its way into every single crevasse it can squeeze itself into, adding to the icicles dangling from the bottom of the large rocks and boulders. As we walk, deep footprints marked our way home, as the coolness of the crisp night breeze nipped at our noses.

"Hey buddy, remember the first Snoggletog we had together?"

Toothless gave him a curious crooned, tilting his head slightly in wonder.

"Well... When I first put on the tail for you, I thought you would still hesitate before you left."

The dragon nodded with a small grunt. An "uh hur. Yes?" in human terms.

"But well... You didn't. You just hot up and left. And I thought... I would never see you again..."

I watched as toothless slowly stopped in his tracks. I could see in his eyes that he was guilty of his actions. I stopped too. Stroking his smooth black scales, I continued.

"But when you came back with my lost helmet. It wasn't the helmet I was so happy about. You chose to fly with me instead of being able to fly freely by yourself. And I'm really grateful for that. Thank you."

"You really did give me the best present ever."

Smiling I gave Toothless a hug. I really was grateful for all he did for me. Lightening up the mood, I joked.

"I can't wait to see what you'll come up with this year."

* * *

We walked ever so onwards into the middle of the forest. The moon was in full form, and we were quite far from the village. Suddenly, toothless stopped in his tracks. The noise of our footsteps stopped as silence filled the air. I watched confusingly as the dragon lifted his head to smell the air, like a predator searching for food. Just as sudden as he stopped, he turned his head to the left, and without warning, quickly ran off towards that direction.

"Toothless come back here!" I cried out as I started to chase after him.

I was glad he ran, because if he flew, I would never be able to catch up with him. Struggling to run with my prosthetic leg, I shifted my weight around to be able to get better grip on the soft snow. "TOOTHLESS!" I cried, but he never turned to look behind. He sniffed the air again, and turned another corner, dashing through the snowy forest. That split second he turned, I saw his face. It looked strangely frantic, like he was searching for something.

We continued running, but as fatigue slowly got me, Toothless got further and further away, not to mention it was dark so I could hardly see his black body disappearing into the dark. The last glimpse of him from the distance was him dashing straight, jumping into some thick evergreen bushes. Slowly with what little energy I could exert left, I got to the bushes. Already struggling with my leg, I pulled myself out of that bush, into the clearing. A small lake rested in front of me, sealed in ice and drenched in snow. The view of moon was so clear, the reflecting beams of moonlight shimmered off the surrounding snow like candles, lighting the whole area. Its glow so bright the view of the lake was perfect.

And there was toothless. Walking straight to it. Onto the frozen lake.

"Toothless! Come back here you stupid reptile the ice isn't going to be able to support your weight!" I scolded him, hoping his dragon smartness would see through what in Thor's mighty name he was doing. But of course, he didn't listen and strolled lightly onto the ice like it was some smooth flooring. He suddenly stopped and looked at me, gesturing me to follow him there, shaking his head in his direction.

"No way toothless, I'm not going there. What if the ice cracks?"

 _"If I knew it would crack do you think I would be standing on it?_ "Said his face. I knew I didn't have a choice in this. Again.

I slowly inched my way across the slippery ice. The snow on it didn't make traction any better, as I slipped slowly to toothless' big body. I could see the signs of the dark blue depths below me under the translucent ice. It was pretty deep for a small lake. And the icy darkness of blue black seemed to go down for an eternity. I finally got to the big reptile, which had, and still, was gesturing at a spot on the ice. He knocked the ice lightly, just enough to hear the "thunk" sounds of the thick ice. Since standing didn't give me any good holding, I knelt down beside him. Looking at the pile of snow Toothless was stamping on.

"You know Toothless, if you wanted some fish we could always head home and get some there."

Toothless gave me an annoyed grunt, then continued looking at the same spot. I looked too, puzzled by what on earth had made him so interested in the lake.

"Toothless, what do you want? What is...down...there..."

I swept the blanket of snow away, expecting the deep black darkness of potential doom to show itself to me again. But it didn't. Instead, it remained white, like snow was stuck under the ice. Puzzled, I swept away more snow, something revealed itself.

A boy. Under the ice.

The boy was around my age, maybe a few years older. His face was pale, not surprising inside such cold frigid ice. He wore a small and brown open vest that fell just past the slim knees of his legs, as well as a brown cloak made of some sort of animal hide and fur, a white woollen shirt was visible underneath it all along with a pair of tattered trousers bound with lighter material starting from the knee down to the end, and in his lifeless hand gripped a long wooden shepherd's crook. But the most peculiar and amazing thing about him was his white hair. It was snow white, almost silver. As the moonlight shone on his face, it gave him a lifeless glow.

"Is he alive?" I stupidly asked. Of course he's not. Judging by the thick ice and not a breathing hole in sight, he should be long dead by now. But I never saw a boy like him in our village, and the next town or village was miles away. So how did he die here?

Dead he may be, but I couldn't let this guy continue his watery grave without a proper burial.

"Come on buddy we gotta get him out of there." I said, as I started to pound the ice. Toothless follow suit, but it was a dangerous and risky task. It we hit the ice too much, the whole thing might crack, which might end up with a dark and cold swim at the bottom of the lake. The ice was much thicker than it looks, toothless' pounding could only crack the top half of the ice while I could hardly make a dent. It was getting darker and harder to see. But something in my mind told me not to give up, that this mysterious frozen boy was something important. Slowly but surely, I used up what's left of my energy. Toothless was panting too, but still continuing to crack the ice. 'It's no use. The ice is too thick.' I thought to myself. I know I couldn't give up now, but what could I do?

Suddenly, as if the great Odin had heard me, the moon suddenly glowed a great beam of white, shining its moonlight onto the boy's body. From inside the frozen lake, he started to rise, slowly, carefully, but rather than colliding with the ice and having his progress halted, he moved through it quite easily. The ice effortlessly started to crack up, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces as the boy rose higher and higher, like it was just a thin sheet of ice. Finally, the boy was lifted from the depths. He didn't stop moving after that either, floating upwards until his bare feet dangled freely in the air. As sudden as it began, he started to sink, falling steadily and ending up in my arms. He was very light, almost weightless, like it was the wind resting on me. A sparkle of moonlight gleamed into my eyes and a voiced ringed in my head.

 _He's name is Jack Frost. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, please take care him until the time comes…_  
  
"Who are you?!" I yelled at the moon, but it didn't reply. "What do you mean until the time comes? He's already-"

Suddenly, a tiny jerk came from the unconscious body.

"-dead?"

The boy stirred, yet he remained unconscious, like he was dreaming. As I listen closely, I could hear the sound of his breath.

"My lord. He's still alive..."


	2. The Woods, a Roof, And a Pile of Cloth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All characters and their original movies belong to their respective creators.
> 
> Find my original post of this series here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8828817/1/Dragons-Over-the-Ice

The boy was alive.

Even after being under ice for so long, he was breathing and well. Only one thing held certain in my mind now: getting him back to safety. I climbed on to Toothless, with the boy, I mean Jack Frost, in my arms. We had to get back as soon as possible, before he freezes to death.

"Let's go bud. We have to hurry back." I instructed, holding on to Toothless with one hand, and Jack with the other. Toothless lifted himself of the ground and sped off towards the village. The forest was thick and dense and blocked our route towards the sky. Usually, we would just fly through them, but without a proper harness for Jack, it would be a risky task.

"Low level evasive manoeuvre." I told Toothless. Toothless navigated his way across the forest, swerving and diving through fallen trees and boulders as I searched for a clearing between the trees we could pass through. But it was midnight and the only source of light was from the moon, but even that was blocked out by the thick canopy. In other words, visibility was almost down to zero.

Suddenly, I saw a faint beam of moonlight through the trees, a weak spot we could get through. I knew it was our ticket out of here.

"Over there Toothless! Go up!" I cried. In a sudden burst of speed, Toothless immediately swept up vertically into the trees, climbing ever so quickly to the top. I held on to Jack tightly as I braced for impact. Branches flew pass us, inches from our faces. One false swerve and we would have been impaled by their thin, yet sharp hooks. The sound of rustling leaves echoed through the forest as passed through the greenery. Toothless' large wings sounded like a hail storm, beating relentlessly. The light in front of us got brighter and brighter, until with one final swoop, we shot into the star lit sky, escaping the endless barrier of woods. The night sky was clear, with only a few clouds in the distance. Stars spread out across the sky, as if they were showing us the way home. With nothing to obstruct us and the vast eternity of stars as our guide, we sped off to the village.

* * *

By the time we got back to Berk, it was already long after nightfall. The village was silent. Majority of the villagers were long asleep. Only a few lamps were lit and an eerie wind shook the weak structures around the village, making them creak and making the creepy atmosphere even tenser. Dad had a long day of work around the village so he should be fast asleep too. With no one to help out, it was up to only me and Toothless to save Jack.

Quickly, we flew back to the house. The fireplace was still lit, giving light and warmth that rised into my bedroom. We slowly crept up the stairs to my bed, gently placing Jack's cold body onto my bed. The water that had soaked his clothes had already frozen up, even though it usually takes much longer to freeze, forming delicate scroll works of ice around his clothes. Even his staff (which I had brought along with us) had frozen solid, covered in frost like a lace wrapped around it from top to bottom. But even so, Jack still looked fine. Unconscious and pale as he may be, but not shivering, or in pain, or anything a hypothermic person would do. My thoughts were jumbled inside my head. I had never experienced saving someone from a frozen lake, let alone finding him still alive. It's these kinds of moments I wish I had Fishlegs around. The only thing I was absolutely sure of doing was to keep him warm. I covered Jack with my blanket, but I knew that my single blanket wouldn't be enough to keep him warm at all. I had to find something else. But what? Then, it struck me.

As Toothless mended the fireplace downstairs, I ran around gathering bit and pieces of cloth I could find. Towels, spare blankets, clothes, even the carpets, every unused cloth in sight, layering them onto Jack, until a thick blanket of cloth was made. Toothless too had finished his work, and he slowly climbed up to settle down on his bed. I should be off to bed as well, but with Jack occupying my bed, I didn't have a place to sleep. Gathering the remaining carpet I found to make a makeshift mat on the cold floor, I too settled in for the night. And with a spare blanket in my tired hands. I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Every morning, Toothless would wake me up for some morning flying by jumping on the roof or pulling me out of bed. It used to be shocking to wake up to crater size holes on the roof or greeting the floor every morning with my head, but I got used to it. We would head out just after daybreak to the cliffs to fly with Astrid and the others, doing stunts, catching fish, and bonding with each other. But this morning, the day after I found Jack in a lake, the roof shaking never came. Yawning, I slowly rose up from the floor, suspecting that Toothless might have slept in later from yesterday's incident. But as I looked towards Toothless' bed. He wasn't there.

"Toothless? " I said, climbing out from the carpets, walking towards his bed. It seemed like he was here a few hours ago. "Where could he have gone?"

At first, I thought dad had borrowed Toothless for a while to help out with his work. But dad already has Thornado, and he wouldn't just take Toothless without informing me, or at least without a struggle. Then I noticed something through the window. The sun was already high up in the sky. Toothless would have never let me miss our morning flight. I stepped back, only to trip onto a lump of stuff of the floor. I glanced down. It was the pile of cloth. The same cloths I had placed on Jack Frost. Suddenly, it hit me. Jack Frost! Picking myself up, I turned towards my bed, expecting to see Jack still unconscious on my bed. But all that remained was a blanket of ice and snow.

Toothless is missing.

Jack Frost was gone.

Well this isn't a good start to the day...

"TOOTHLESS!" I cried, rushing down the stairs. I had to find him so we could search for Jack. He should still be weak from the cold, and going out on his own during winter wouldn't do any good. But how could he get off on his own?

"What should I do..." I rummaged through my brain." Think Hiccup think! Well, the both of them are gone so...they're probably together doing SOMETHING? I hope their being nice...Okay maybe I can-" Suddenly a loud "THUD" could be heard from outside.

"What in the name of Odin..." Acting quickly, I headed towards the door, pushing it open. Once I saw what, or who was outside, a great surge of relief rushed into me. There was Toothless, safe and unharmed.

"Hey bud-" he growled. That was weird. Toothless would never growl at me...except that one time I caught him in the trap, and a few other miscommunications. But Toothless never growled at me for nothing! But if Toothless was here, then Jack, where is he? Before I had time to think, Toothless lifted off the ground and flew up. My eyes trailed after him, turning my body around to face the house. It was only then that I realized that Toothless hadn't been growling at me at all. He had been growling at a boy on my roof.

Jack Frost.

* * *

Jack Frost was sitting on the roof, kicking his legs with vigorous energy like he wasn't under ice just hours ago. His eyes, which I never got to see the night before, shone a bright icy blue, almost sparkling as sunlight reflected off them. Toothless was sitting a few feet away from him, staring intently at Jack, like he would pounce the moment Jack wanted to get away.

"Hello stranger!" Jack said, turning to look at me. His voice sounded bright, friendly, and full of mischief. "You're finally awake! I thought you'd never get up!"

"I should say the same to you." I answered, seeing the irony in what he said. "And by the way, the name's Hiccup."

"Jack Frost." He smiled, showing his row of crisp white teeth.

"What are you doing up there?"

"I got stuck."

"On my roof?" I replied, trying to figure out how he got up in the first place.

"Yup."

There was a moment of silence as I tried to deduce how on earth he ended up there. A few minutes later, and not a single idea linked Jack to the roof. I wasn't getting anywhere so there wasn't any point of thinking about it any further. The next bit I have to figure out, however, might be a bit easier: getting Jack down from the roof.

"Toothless, can you get him down for me?" I asked. Immediately, a disgusted look appeared on Jack face, followed by some loud objections.

"Wait, wait, and wait. You're gonna ask the reptile to help me down?" Jack asked, very offended.

"Is there something wrong?"

"I spent half an hour being chased by that vicious black dragon. No way am I going to watch my life dangle in front of me as I'm being gripped onto by his sharp teeth."

With much protest and complaining, Jack somehow managed to convince me to get him off the roof through the bedroom window. As Toothless and I ran back to my room, Jack slowly angled himself down the edge of the roof to the window side.

"Okay I'm here Jack. You can make your way down. Slowly." From my room, I held his legs steady as he slowly inched his way down the roof, feet first.

"You know. This could be a lot faster and easier if you would let Toothless carry you down."

"The first thing that dragon wanted to do when he first saw me was attack and eat me."

"That's because you were trying to leave the house."

Toothless grunted in agreement to that statement, clearly showing that the two did not start on the right foot. In all honesty, Toothless could have just set him on fire and gotten rid of him quite easily. But I guess Toothless was smart enough to know that that wouldn't make me very happy. Suddenly, there was an audible "rip" from above me.

"Hold on a second, I think my shirt got stuck or somethi- WOAH!" Jack had accidentally let go off the roof, leaving half his body in the room, and the other half trying to stop him from doing a spine breaking bend.

"JACK!" I cried as I saw him slip, grabbing onto his legs, Toothless held onto me to make sure I didn't end up out the window with him. With a single pull, Toothless hauled us in, pulling Jack in, and onto me. We tumbled onto the floor scattering what was left on the floor.

"Urgh... Jack you okay?" I asked him, rubbing my head.

"Yeah..."

The both of us scrambled to our feet, kicking the pile of cloth elsewhere so we wouldn't slip and fall on them. The ice and snow on my bed was already melting. Great. I'll have a wet bed to sleep in tonight. That will be a problem I would need to solve later. But for now...

"How did you get up on the roof?" I queried, brushing of the remaining dust on my fur coat.

"Flew up there." Jack said matter-of-factly.

"...Flew up there?!" in all my sixteen years of Berk no one has ever flown...except on dragons. But that was another matter.

Jack shrugged. "I don't know. I just jumped and somehow ended up on the roof" I gave him the most deadpan expression ever.

"Maybe you could do it again?" I asked." I mean, it would help a lot if I knew how you could fly and how the heck you ended up there." Jack pondered that thought for a moment, tilting his head to and fro.

Jack closed his eyes again. The concentrated look on his face gave him a serious expression. The still air inside my room wrapped around him like a tiny tornado, bits of paper and small items around the room started to sweep along with the wind. Then, slowly but surely, Jack started to rise. I was shocked. I have seen many amazing and unbelievable things in my life, dragons, hidden treasure, the power of Thor, but nothing like this. Never in my entire life would I have thought I could see a human, an ordinary human, lift himself off the ground with no assistance.

"Pretty neat hu-" Jack tried to say, but it ended up with him letting out a burst of energy, reuniting his head to the roof. And just like he had lost all his power, he fell face flat onto the pile of cloth. Thank Thor I didn't keep them just now.

I now knew how Jack ended up on the roof.

" Jack are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine.""

Jack rubbed the back of his head, probably in pain from being hit quite hard by the roof. Meanwhile, so many thoughts found their way into my head. Jack Frost had an amazing gift from the Gods, and it was a waste if he could only rise less than two feet off the ground. But given a new challenge to face, it was time for the dragon trainer to shine. In a different sort of way.

"Hey Jack."

"Hmm?"

"Want me to teach you how to fly?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :) A favorite or review is always appreciated.
> 
> More to come soon!


	3. Between Discovering and Being Discovered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All characters and their original movies belong to their respective creators.
> 
> Find my original post of this series here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8828817/1/Dragons-Over-the-Ice

A few hours ago, Toothless and I found a boy inside a frozen lake. Through some strange miracle of the gods… of sorts, the boy, whose name was Jack Frost, was alive and kicking, with mysterious powers to fly. Jack had strangely warmed up to me after less than an hour, and had already made it his living, breathing mission in life to bug Toothless to the ends of the Earth. He even gave Toothless a new nickname, Reptile, which clearly irritated the Night Fury, to my dismay. But now it was time to teach Jack how to fly. And with so much knowledge of flying in me, how hard could that be?

After yet another round of convincing, we arrived at the rocky cliffs on Toothless' back, much to the displeasure of both boy and dragon. The rocky cliffs were located at the back of the island, a few miles away from the village. Large, jagged-edged rocks protrude out from the wave cut platform like stalactites in a cave, eroded, sharpened, and disconnected from the steep main cliffs by the huge waves below. Snow had somehow missed this part of the island, leaving it brown and green from dirt, dislocated from the white that surrounded everywhere else. We landed at the cliffs. The ground was drizzled with rocks and stones of all sizes, a perfect place to train our new flying friend.

"From what I saw of your...um...performance just now, though it's unpredictable, you already have enough power to lift yourself off the ground." I said, scribbling some notes into a small notebook I brought along. "All you need now is to be able to control your powers, so you won't end up free falling if you're suddenly riled up by something."

"And how are you going to do that?" Jack asked as he messed about with Toothless with a stick, noticeably more interested in his pestering skills.

"With this." Jack looked towards me, searching for any gadgets or gizmos or whatnots he had pictured to help him fly. He looked towards me, slowly panning downwards to my hands, and all he could see was...

A length of rope.

"Rope?" He asked, puzzled. Toothless grinned in a sort of mischievous way, chuckling as he nudged the boy over to me with his tail.

"Yup. It was quite sudden so I didn't have the time to think of anything else. But I'm sure this will do just fine." I replied, bending down to tie one end of the rope to one of Jack's leg, and the other to a big rock nearby.

"There you go!" I said as I completed the last knot. "This will keep you from flying out of control."  
Jack looked at his leg, then at the rock, and then at me. His face queered, clearly not liking the idea of being strapped to a large grey rock. "In all honesty Hiccup, I don't think the boulder's necessary."

"It's just safety measures Jack. You don't have anything to smash your head into if you suddenly go haywire again this time you know." A distance away, Toothless snorted in amusement.

"Hiccup! Reptile laughed at me!" Jack whined. Jack tried to retaliate, but the rock held him down, only allowing him to reach out a few feet away. It ended up with Jack stretching his hands out, flailing around in a pathetic attempt to reach the mocking dragon. It was a sad sight to see.

Ignoring as the two squabbled on, I continued. "Right!" I said, adjusting my notebook. "We're gonna try to get you to learn how to hover mid-air today, so that we'll be able to get you up and going as soon as possible. When I give you the signal, I want you to slowly rise up in the air until I say stop. Ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." said Jack confidently, yet if you look closely, he was trembling with anticipation.

Jack closed his eyes, concentrated and, before he knew it, he had shot several feet up into the air, only jerked to a halt by the rope tied to his leg.

"Slowly!" I instructed, holding down the almost elevated rock." Control the release of your power!"

"I'm trying!" Jack cried out above me, before suddenly, turning around to greet the ground with a 'bam', crashing into a heap of dirt nearby.

"Jack, are you okay?" I said as I rushed over to his side.

"...Needs to be shorter." Yup, he was fine.

* * *

We adjusted the rope, making it shorter and tighter, so that Jack only flies up a few inches and not a few feet, switching to a sturdier rock to make sure nothing goes flying off. The next few tries did not go so well either. Each attempt had a significant increase in power, resulting in rocks being catapulted into the air. But after a whole afternoon of adjusting ropes, changing weights, countless instructions, and seeing Jack try time and time again to stay off the ground, he was finally getting the hang of it.

For one, he didn't crash land as often anymore. Then again maybe he was afraid to get another bruise or a bone broken. He could stay off the ground for a full five seconds. Funny how flying was almost the same as riding a dragon. You need balance, coordination, control, and a bucket full of courage and determination.

"Hey Jack, I left something back at the house. You won't mind if you stay here while I go grab it?"

"Yeah. Sure. Go ahead. Don't mind me." he replied, completely engrossed in trying to control himself.

Getting onto Toothless, I turned around to see Jack, completely occupied in practice. I smiled. Who knew the boy would want to fly that badly. Maybe it was just the sheer determination, or maybe he wanted to impress his teacher. Or maybe he wanted to be equal with Toothless so that he could pester the dragon while in the air.

Yep, that last one seems about right.

"Okay. I'll be back soon. Don't move from there."

"Don't see how I could!" he joked, turning to give me wave before getting back to his business. But before I had taken off towards the village, for a moment there, I thought I had heard a faint "Or could I….." behind me. Could Jack...Nah, probably just my imagination.

The thing I had left at home was not actually mine, but belonged to the person who had stayed behind at the cliffs. Digging into my cupboard, I took out Jack's wooden staff. Even after a whole night in one of the only warmest parts of my room, it was still covered in frost, making it feel smooth yet cold to the touch. It was hard to imagine Jack actually using this herding staff to its purpose.

Now that I think about it, I still hadn't asked him what happened to him and how he ended up frozen in the lake. But whatever it was, Jack would be definitely be delighted to see his old belongings back. I wrapped the staff loosely with a piece of cloth, just in case someone notices it. Slinging it behind my back, Toothless and I slowly crept down the stairs and out of the house.

"Come on Bud" I whispered as we cautiously sneaked towards the cliffs." Let's get back to jack before someone finds u-"

"HICCUP!" a voiced echoed in the distance. It was similar to a ferocious beast's roar.

Oh boy...

Turning around, I was confronted by a furious Astrid and the rest of the gang. She stood in front of all of them, with Stormfly at her side. Her arms were crossed, as usual, with her serious expression. Snotlout was just beside her, attempting to give me the same look but failing quite miserably since Hookfang was behind him breathing down his neck. Fishlegs stood on her other side, emitting a 'worried mother' aura, while twins were doing their own thing, playing a game which involved a big bat.

"Where. Were. You? Do you know what time it is?"

"Ha-ha...Time? Time for what?"

"Training!" She shrieked, raising her voice to its full volume. "Dragon Training remember? Don't give me that look Hiccup! We should have started more than four hours ago!"

I knew it would be useless to make something feasible to fool Astrid, but I couldn't possibly tell them I was teaching a boy how to fly. "Look Astrid, I'm really sorry. Something important came up and I completely forgot okay?"

Astrid looked at me, unconvinced, but she let out a sigh, flipping her bangs out of her eye. It was moments like these where I was glad that under tough, feisty, Viking exterior, she was still an understanding person. Any other questions and I might not know how to answer them anymore.

"Fine. You're busy. I'll accept that excuse. Now come on, let's head back to the academ-"

"...I can't."

"What?"

"I can't come today. Or even... these few days after."

She stared at me, momentarily dumbfounded. Then her rage returned tenfold. "Why not?! Hiccup, you're the leader of the Dragon Training Academy! We're supposed to train together and lead the others! How can we do any training if the one in charge isn't even there?!"

"Then for now, I'll leave you in charge Astrid. Take care of the academy till I'm done...I'm sorry I have to go." My conscious was as heavy as all of Gobber's weapons combined. I really felt bad for pushing the problem to her, when I should be the one taking responsibility to lead the group. But I couldn't risk dragging the conversation even longer. I started to walk away, Toothless lagging slowly behind me.

"What? Wait! Hold on Hiccup you can't just-"

"Hookfang get him!" I heard Snotlout cry.

I turned around to see Hookfang lunged onto Toothless, trying to pin him down with his hooked claws. Toothless dodged the attack, only to be assaulted by Stormfly. The Deadly Nadder was quick but the Night Fury was quicker, avoiding her attack, his prosthetic tail narrowly escaping her jaws. The others tried to join in, but Toothless knew better than to continue the fight. He quickly dodged a following attack, running towards me and making our great escape.

Throwing myself onto Toothless, we flew off. I could hear Astrid's yells slowly fading into the atmosphere. I couldn't tell them. I couldn't face them. Somehow, I felt that I couldn't even trust them. It felt like the time I just met Toothless in the forest, alone and on my own. Toothless gave me a comforting croon, easing my thoughts a bit.

"Don't worry bud, I'll tell them soon... Maybe...One day…"

* * *

To make sure the gang didn't find our location, Toothless and I landed in a clearing nearby and walked the rest of the way. I took the time to sort out my thoughts and decided that the best way to solve this problem is to quickly get Jack's controls in check, so I could finally introduce him to Astrid with any serious or mind blowing issues.

'I wonder how Jack's training is going along?' I thought to myself. I could imagine Jack still hoping along the ground like a new born bird, struggling to get any lift at all. Training a human was far more challenging then training a dragon. I even suggested to Toothless whether we should follow in the bird's example and throw him off the cliff too. However I quickly brushed the idea off to a side before Toothless could get any weird ideas.

We finally reached the path to the cliff side. It was already close to evening, and the sun was about to pack up for the day. Expecting to see him still practicing his flying, I happily yelled out "Hey Jack we're back! How's progress?" in hopes a tired groan would reply to amuse us.

But all that was left was the pile of rocks and the rope.

"Jack?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :) A favorite or review is always appreciated.
> 
> More to come soon!


	4. Trust in Flight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All characters and their original movies belong to their respective creators.
> 
> Find my original post of this series here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8828817/1/Dragons-Over-the-Ice

Jack wasn't there. Or at least, he wasn't there currently. Toothless gave me a relieved grin, which he quickly switched to a more worried expression to suit the situation. It was clear he was elated at the chance the annoying fly that had bugged him had went off somewhere else to bug another unsuspecting dragon. I inspected the rope. It was still in mint condition, which minuses out the possibility of Jack being kidnapped by Outcasts or being eaten by a wild dragon or something. I inched my way towards the edge of the cliff. The sheer rock face was almost vertical, revealing the mighty waves below. Lying down at the edge of the cliff and slowly peered downwards, I hoped and prayed that I would not see a disemboweled body of a young boy sprawled on the wave cut platform. Thankfully, there wasn't.

Unless his body got swept out to sea…

"Jack?" I called, scanning the area for any other signs of him. Suddenly, a streak of brown and white drew a line across the corner of my eye. I blinked and spun around to find the source, hoping that Jack would be standing behind me with a mischievous grin across his face, who I would then scold for slacking off. But there was nobody there. Maybe I was seeing things－

"Hey! Up here Hiccup!"

Slowly, I turned my head towards the sky, and found myself face-to-face with Jack.

He was airborne, floating in the air without his rope or rock.

"This is easy Hiccup! Who says I can't learn how to fly?" Jack boasted as he leaned back in the air.

"I thought I told you to stay put." I tried to reprimand, "And not to take out your rope." But my words came out less angry than I would have expected. Probably because I was still surprised at his quick improvement after only a few hours of my absence.

"I was put." He replied, ignoring my second sentence and pointing to a few trees in the distance." I just went off there for a sec to try it out instead." I followed his point, only to turn back to see Jack rise a bit higher and flying up towards the sky. A little unstable, a little rough, but flying nonetheless. Hovering off the edge of the rocky cliffs, he carefully stopped mid-air, shouting his cheers of triumph on how even someone as impish and apathetic as him was able to put in effort. I gave him a few warnings on maintaining his control, and a conceded sigh when he happily brushed me off. But soon, the worries in me slowly dissipated away, leaving me, too, in celebration on Jack's quick success.

* * *

However, I had let down my guard too soon. For I had not noticed that Jack was getting further and further away from the cliffs and more and more unstable as he did.

A gust of strong wind came out of nowhere and suddenly, like as if all sensibility had been drained out of him, Jack went out of control. He spun crazily in the air, swerving violently from side to side as he tried to retain his concentration, but to no avail, barely avoiding a crash into the sharp edges of the rocks. It was as though his body had a life of its own.

"Jack!" I yelled, watching as the helpless boy suddenly took off, zooming straight up into the clouds, disappearing from sight. I turned to Toothless, who was already ready with a gaze of urgency that had me jumping onto him with everything I had.

There, in the setting sky, I could see Jack's panicked face as he tried to regain control of his flying. "Aaagh!" I heard him cry as he swooped wildly above. "Help, I can't stop!" Toothless flew after him, flying faster with every wing beat, reducing the distance between me and Jack, until we were only a hand's length apart from each other. Jack reached out his hand, our fingers brushed, but as sudden as it started, all at once his body froze.

"Hiccup!" he gasped as he started to fall back to Earth. Out of shock I failed to grab him as he passed us, reaching my hand out into the air as we sped past him. I tried to turn Toothless as quickly as I could, but at the speed we were going, it cost us a few precious seconds to regain enough control to steer ourselves into the right direction. We turned, and suddenly, and audible ripping came from behind us.

"Oh no. Oh nononono no." I dreaded as I turned my head around to face the noise, "In the love of Odin's mighty name not now!" But I was right. During the commotion, Stormfly had punctured a hole in Toothless' artificial wing. It was a measly small cut, about the size of a button, so it didn't catch my attention or affect Toothless' flying before. But now, at such fast and violent speeds, the hole had slowly but surely enlarged itself, eating away at the wing. And at the rate we were going, it would eventually rip apart completely.

Now Toothless and I had a time limit. We had to save Jack and return to land before the wing gives in, or end up falling into the freezing waters and sharp rocks down below as well.

* * *

With gravity by our side, we caught up to the plummeting boy, only distanced by a few feet. Thinking of a way to shorten that distance, I remembered. Jack's staff! I scavenged for it, unwrapping it from the cloth on my back. The staff was still freezing cold, making it difficult to hold onto. Griping onto one end, I stretched out the other to him. Jack looked surprised when he saw me holding out his possession at him, but he knew that it wasn't a good time to ask questions. He reached out for the staff, flailing his arm as he struggled to grab hold of it mid-air.

"Got it!" he yelled as he finally contacted the wood, clasping onto the tip of the staff.

"Hold on! I'll pull you up!" I replied. But such a task was pretty much impossible right now. The hole on Toothless' wing had grown a tremendous size, making controlling the Night Fury even harder than it already was. I silently cursed my weak body as I uselessly tried to pull Jack up with only one arm, unable to lift him any higher than a few inches. Not only that, my hands were slowly getting numb from the exposure to the unforgiving winds. The hand holding the staff took the most damage; it was stiff and red, almost blue from holding onto the frost-drizzled staff while being subjected by the freezing weather. Jack had noticed my weakness too, inferring from Toothless' damaged tail and the disgruntled expression on my face that his rescue team was in a pinch as well. He looked down at the crashing waves and piercing rocks below, then looked up again at me. His expression changed, no longer distressed and panicked. A serious and determined aura emitted in its place, followed by a sentence I would never imagine anyone saying to me.

"Hiccup, I need you to trust me on this. I want you to let go of my staff."

I was in disbelief. Was he going to sacrifice himself? "No way! I'm not gonna save myself and let you fall!"

"I'm not. Just trust me." His gaze remained resolved and unwavering. A different shade of blue from his actual bright and playful eyes.

"Trust me."

The tailfin on Toothless had already reached its limit, the skeletal structure whipping violently in the wind, holding onto whatever that hasn't already ripped from its form. There was almost a zero percentage chance of rescuing Jack, or ourselves for that matter. I could only trust that Jack knew what he was doing, and believe that whatever crazy idea he had would save us. Looking at him one more time, I nodded my head, and let the staff go.

Jack pulled the rest of the staff towards him, quickly resetting his handling. Turning to face towards the sea, he held out his staff and closed his eyes. The staff slowly radiated a light blue glow. Flurries of white air circled itself around the tip of the staff, spiraling around the curve. I watched, clueless and helpless as the swirls of air grew in size, sparks fizzing out as the staff continued to glow brighter and brighter.

The clouds shifted in the distance, and the first glimpse of the moon was revealed. Its faint form barely visible in the fiery scarlet sky. A pale moonbeam shone down into my eyes, just as it did the night before. This time, there was no voice, no speech. Only a single image that emerged in my mind.

My frozen bed.

As soon as the memory reprinted itself into me, something in my head clicked, and somehow, I knew what Jack was doing. I stared down at the crashing waves, analyzing our distance, our speed and the movement of the wave's rising and crashing, looking out for the perfect chance. It was all I could do in the current situation; the only way I could help Jack.

_Wait for it._  A cluster of waves started to form below us...

_Wait for it._  Their crests reaching the optimal height of its curve...

"NOW JACK!"

Jack opened his eyes, and in that fraction of a second, a beam of white light shot out from the tip of his staff. The once moving, crashing ocean just stopped in its tracks like time itself had frozen its movements. The staff shook violently in his hands as he gripped it tightly, the immense power pushing him closer to me as the icy webs of frozen sea branched out from the impact point of the blast. It spanned away, curling and twisting, until the whole stretch of the cliff side was an ice field. As each wave crests solidified, they formed slides and slopes of pure ice. Some were dainty, barely forming a curve before it froze in its tracks, and others stood like a towering wall, though not as tall as the cliffs themselves. We braced for impact, landing hard on the biggest slope of ice below us. It shook slightly, but didn't break when we fell.

* * *

The giant ice slide began. Slipping off the edge of the ice slope, we were plunged into a sharp winding spiral of steep inclines and sudden drops, each even faster and more extreme than the next. I held on tightly to Toothless as the dragon struggled to keep control of his sliding body, leaning side to side to maneuver across the ice. Jack, too, was slipping around, but instead of a distressed look like mine, a smile lit up his face. His eyes sparkled as he approached the elaborate twists and turns, yelling and shouting in delight as he slid over the ice floor, using the his staff to fling himself around protruding rocks and sharp stacks of ice. Soon, Jack had got up on his two feet, skating over the icy mountains in a breeze, with me and Toothless right behind him. Eventually, the both of us were caught in Jack's pace, cheering, almost squealing with adrenaline as we cross the frozen waves, blasting frozen obstructions with Toothless' plasma beams. The waves surrounding the ice took turns to spray us with their cold sea water, soaking our clothes as we skid along.

Hurry up slow pokes!" Jack sang. He clearly enjoyed the fact that he was winning. Rolling my eyes, I leaned down as far as I could, trying to make Toothless as streamlined as possible. The race went on, along more swerves and slips.

"Umm... Jack?"

"Hmm? What is it Hiccup? M'I too good for you to defeat?" Jack replied, smirking. However that smirk quickly disappeared when he faced what was in front of us.

"...Oh shoot."

The ice was ending. And the end of it all was, the face of the cliff. At the speed we were going, crashing into it wouldn't be pretty, and with the cliff quickly getting closer and nothing to stop us, things weren't looking very well for either of us.

"Jack! Do something!" I cried out. "We're gonna crash!"

"Hang on!"

Jack faced his staff forward again, and another swirl of air revolved around it. He quickly shot it, this time forming a slope of ice out of thin air. The slope was uneven, and unnaturally almost vertical. Grabbing on to Toothless, the three of us shot off the ice and streamed across the sky. "Toothless! Open your wings!" I quickly instructed the Night Fury. Toothless did as he was told and opened his wings big and wide. It helped to slow down our fall, however, we were still falling fast. Two yells and a panicked roar later, we crash landing face first into a nearby tree.

"Ouch" Jack winced, rubbing his head as he popped his head out of a mass of leaves. "You okay?"

I gave him the most deadpan expression I could do.

"Jack."

"Y-Yes?"

"If you ever do this again I will personally tie you to a tree and leave you there for the rogue dragons to eat."

"O-okay."

* * *

Lucky for him, the anger dissipated as quickly as the temperature dropped. Snow had finally found its way towards the cliffs, falling soundlessly around us in light sprinkles of white. I felt colder than ever in my wet clothes. Jack probably saw me shivering too, though the boy himself looked absolutely unfazed by the clusters of frost starting to form on his vest and cloak.

"I'm going to go get some firewood okay?" He said. I nodded slightly, pulling my legs to my chest as I tried to avoid the chilly wind. Toothless walked over and curled up next to me, till I was nestled between the dragon's black body. He purred and staring coolly at me before resting his head between his forepaws, eventually starting to snore silently beside me. You could always count on a dragon to keep you warm.

Soon, Jack was back with quite a bit of firewood. Actually, they were mostly branches and pieces of twigs but they were dry so they would do. Toothless lit them on fire and soon I could feel my fingers again. Jack took a seat next to me, enjoying the warmth of the flames as they danced around the wood. The sun was slowly heading down towards the horizon, bathing the sky in a beautiful array of colors.

"You know Jack?" I said as I pulled a few leaves and twigs from my hair. "I should have asked you this before but where are you from? The neighboring village? Across the ocean?" "And how were you able to do…. That?" I added, pointing to the tower of ice sticking out of the cliff edge.

Jack gazed away with such a different expression from the smile he wore before. "...I don't know Hiccup. I don't remember."

"You don't remember?" I was puzzled. How could he not know where he lived? "T-Then how did you end up in that lake?"

"Lake?" Jack asked, confused. "I was in a lake?"

I told him what happened. About our walk in the forest, about Toothless, about the mystical lake. Strangely, as I described the series of events to him, Jack stayed silent the whole time. He looked quietly at me as I spoke, nodding his head once in a while. But through the whole explanation, he looked bewildered, disbelieving, almost as if the whole unbelievable story came out of the Elder's library of mythical scriptures and books. When I got to the part about the moon, Jack was awfully silent. It seems like he knew about the moon and the mysterious voice I heard.

"Did he speak to you too?" I asked, trying to break the silence. "This moon fellow."

"Yeah. He's the one who told me my name." Jack replied. "And if not for him, I think I might not even know that either."

"Oh." I whispered under my breath, returning the mood to its uncomfortable position. Even though I was sitting very close to the fire, the tense atmosphere still chilled the air around us.

"Hiccup...who am I?"

The question caught me off guard, making me quite regret talking about such a touchy subject. The fire crackling beside us tried its best to break the silence with its dancing embers and sudden pops, but to no avail. Jack had no memories of his past, and doubtfully, what he was going to do in the future. Jack twiddled his thumbs as he waited for my answer, like a child separated from his mother. He was so brave, yet now, he looked so lonely. I worked up my courage and stood up, extending a hand towards Jack.

"You're Jack Frost. The mischievous, inattentive, dragon-bugging boy I found in a lake with amazing powers from who knows where." I began. "I might not know who you are, where you're from, or why you were under that lake. But what I know is that I saved you from there, and the moon told me to protect you. So until you are able to find your identity, you're now my responsibility."

"… And my friend." I added softly, running a hand through my hair.

Jack was staring now, and after such an embarrassing speech, it made me a bit uncomfortable. He saw my distressed and chuckled slightly, He smiled, reaching out his hand to grab hold of mine. And as he looked at me, I could see his icy blue eyes returning to their formal bright and playful state.

"… Thanks Hiccup."

* * *

"So hiccup, where am I gonna stay?" Jack asked as we headed back to Berk.

"My house of course. It'll be easier to keep an eye on you that way."

"Aww..." whined Jack. It seemed he actually want a house of his own. "Then what about your dad? Are you sure he's keen on letting me stay? From all your descriptions of him, he doesn't seem to be a very nice man."

"He is." Sometimes _._  "I'll figure something out." Dad is usually out most times of the day. So I'm sure he won't mind someone sharing a room with me, right? I mean, I already have a dragon sleeping upstairs…

"By the way," I said changing the subject. " You might not be surprised to hear this, but we're walking home today."

"You know Hiccup I can always fly us hom-"

"NO!"

"Fine okay! Geez! Race you back Reptile!"

The remaining orange glow from the sun glinted off the towers of ice as it disappeared into the horizon, its refractions of light casting specks of pale orange across Jack's face as he dashed off with Toothless close behind. Such an excited smile he had as he ran off with Toothless, as if his past had never mattered to him at all. I watched as the two dashed into the sunset, my mind overwhelmed with an uncountable amount of questions that I have thought of in a single day. Questions all about Jack. His past, his powers, everything about him was so mysterious, so unknown. The insides of my mind raced, but an answer could not be found for any of them. I decided to store my curiosities for later and ran after them, catching up to them as we made our way home.

Little did I know that as we walked away, the darkness behind us stirred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :) A favorite or review is always appreciated.
> 
> More to come soon!


	5. A Freeloader's Diary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All characters and their original movies belong to their respective creators.
> 
> Find my original post of this series here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8828817/1/Dragons-Over-the-Ice

My name is Jack Frost. Or at least, that's what people told me. My location? A strange island called Berk, off the shores of nowhere and next to the land of nothing. I'm still not sure on how I got here, or anything at all for that matter. But things have been coming along quite pleasantly so I won't be touching on that issue just yet.

It's been a few days since the flying fiasco that happened at the cliffs, and things have been settling down quite well. Hiccup hasn't really forgiven me for endangering all of us, and decided that another hundred rounds of rock carrying would be the best corrective work order. Well, at least my flying has improved, much to the dislike of my reptilian friend.

Some strange things happen that night after the incident, when we went back to Hiccup's house. Hiccup had told me that I could stay at his house till I could get on on my own. The problem is that he had to tell his dad I would be freeloading here. That worried Hiccup quite a bit, because according to him, his dad isn't the type to open up to strangers. What's more, Hiccup reveals his father, Stoick as Hiccup had told me, was the chief of the village, which makes things a whole lot more problematic.

What's more, there are two things I can infer from the first two lines they said to each other.

"Hey Dad. I'm home." One, Hiccup and his dad aren't very close.

"Mm. Welcome back son." And two, they can't strike a conversation well.

There was an awkward silence after the second line, and Toothless decided that it was safer waiting outside, leaving Hiccup and I standing uncomfortably in the middle of the room. Hiccup's house was considerably big, consisting of two floor connected by a flight of large steps. The main room was large and spacious, and a large fire place burning brightly in the middle of the room to keep the whole place warm. I assumed that Hiccup's room was the second floor, though I had no idea where Stoick's bed was. There was a man crouched beside the kitchen putting fire wood into the stove. His back was facing us and from the direction Hiccup was looking at, that was Stoick. His dad, his chief, and my potential land lord.

I looked at Hiccup, who was thinking of what to do since Stoick had ended that short exchange. Knowing that his dad won't be the one talking any time soon, Hiccup took up the courage and started again. "Hey dad? I've got something to ask you."

"If it's about keeping another dragon? Then no. We already had problems when Torch was around and I don't want that to happen again."

"No I… A friend of mine would like to stay."

"… What friend?" At last, Stoick stood up. He was a big sized man, at least twice the height of Hiccup and I. He had a wide and large rusty orange beard and had arms and like the size of the wooden beams in their house. He was pretty well dressed for such a beast-like man, with a green tunic and scale mail armour, spiked gauntlets and fur boots. And to top it off, on his head was a helmet with long, sharp, curving horns. Definite Viking Chief Material here.

Seeing his opportunity, Hiccup took the risk.

"Dad, this is Jack." He started. I gave Stoick the friendliest smile I could muster and greeted the man. How Hiccup came from such a huge and muscular person like him was a mystery. "He's far away from home and needs a place to stay. Can he stay here?"

"What are you doing taking in people from outside the village again? You really haven't learnt from the Heather incident did you-" Stoick suddenly stopped as he turned and face our direction. Usually, when someone tells you that a friend is staying over at your house, you would either greet the person with open arms, or ask a ton of questions before kicking him out. But Stoick didn't react to me at all. He stared awkwardly at us, as if he was looking at something absolutely bizarre.

'It must be my hair.' I thought. "It must be my hair.'

"Son… Are you sure he won't cause any trouble to the village?" He said to Hiccup, uncertainty in his voice.

"Of course he won't! Right Jack?" Hiccup replied loudly, before nudging me with his elbow, staring at me with an intimidating smile."  _Right_ Jack?"

"Y-Yes of course!" I assured. With Hiccup's dad around, I wouldn't even dare.

Somehow or another, Hiccup got his dad to agree. But as Hiccup lead me up to his room, I can't help feeling that Stoick didn't even notice me walking pass him.

Hiccup's room was big, but there wasn't enough room for another bed. We discussed a few designs, but they were either too big or didn't feel right for me. I suggested maybe something simpler, like a hanging bed or something of that sort. But making a suspended bed took time, sleeping on the floor was not a pleasant option and I doubt Hiccup would feel fine with us sleeping on the same bed for the next couple of weeks.

"How 'bout this?" He called out behind me. "We can use this to make a hammock for you." Turning around, I saw Hiccup had fished out a ball of ropes from one of his cupboards.

It was a bundle of fishing nets. Old, but still in good condition. "It didn't sound really comfortable, but it beats seeing the return of the pile of cloth. Untangling it from the mess, we quickly cleaned set to work in cleaning the dust and dirt covering the net, as well as mending the few tears it had received from its previous occupation. I didn't really have a feeling towards the cold; most likely something in me that malfunctioned permanently when I was trapped under the ice.

That why I guessed it was a stupid idea to suggest washing the nets in the middle of winter. The whole net had started freezing immediately after I took it out of the water, and by the time we got the thing back to the house, frost was covering the entire thing. There were even a few small icicles starting to form on the bottom. Hiccup suggested cleaning them off, but I declined his offer. It was actually quite pretty. The frost spun and twirled in between each gap, giving the plain looking hammock a mysterious and beautiful shine. Hiccup had moved his bed slightly, so we could hang it near the window. The reflections of moonlight that shone onto the hammock danced and twirled, and the faint breeze that blew into the house, made shook the icicles slightly, composing a dainty tinkle of music. It was a piece of art.

And to be honest, I felt quite bad sleeping on such a pretty thing, even though it was just oh so comfortable.

* * *

Even though I've been together with Hiccup for a number of days, he never actually gave me a tour around anywhere, not even the village he lived in. I had asked him numerous times whether we could visit the village, but he never really paid much attention to my request. He always looked unusually nervous when I inquired about that, and I couldn't really figure out why. Speaking of which, I don't understand why he always seemed restless when we headed off for training, always making us leave the house early in the morning, when it was barely dawn. I had asked him why we always had to leave so early, but he never answered that as well. The training grounds too switch daily for some reason, from the cliffs, to a clearing in the forest, to somewhere I don't even know. But yet again, Hiccup refused to reply.

It was only one fine morning where, for some odd reason, I was little extra more determined to get Hiccup to show me around the village. The whole scene was like a little kid pleading his mum to let him go out to play. It started with a humble request, then a serious beg, and somehow lead up to me pulling Hiccup's arm like a stubborn child refusing to have 'no' for an answer, demanding for freedom. Eventually I got him to agree, to my upmost delight. However, in return I have to stay next to him, listen to him, and not talk, touch or bother anyone around me. This also meant no flying. I happily agreed to his protocol, till I realised that he had added Reptile to the list of rules so he could guard me from doing any trouble that I also, reluctantly, had to agree to.

The village was covered in a blanket of white, sparkling snow. In each patch of snow, billions of little snowflakes crystals worked like mirrors, reflecting off the sunlight and giving it out a bright, glistening glow. Hiccup and I ventured out of the house and into the open, and I could see that the entire village was bustling with life. Everyone was outside, doing work, or just hanging around, having a small chat or playing in the snow. They might be Vikings, but they at least knew how to have fun. A few dragons, mostly the young ones ran around the village, chasing each other and the younger kids in a game of catch. It was quite a peaceful sight to behold, this dragons and human interaction. As we walked down the steps from his house to the square, I noticed a number of villagers putting up what looked like small coloured lanterns strung together with string around their houses and architectures which puzzled me. Hiccup explained their annual Snoggletog celebration, a time where they put up decorations and they gather together to do fun sort of things like sing songs and dancing. It all sounded really interesting when he described it, but in reality look... Kind of plain. When we got to the square, I could see another one of the village's bizarre attempts in festive decoration in front of me. Towering in the centre of the village was a pile of wooden planks, painted green and formed into a shape of a tree. It was covered in snow, but under the piles of white, Viking shields and could be seen.

"Why didn't you guys get a real tree?" I questioned, pointing to the tall oaks and pines in the distance.

Hiccup stopped to think, tilting his head as he thought. "To tell you the truth, I don't know why either. Guess it's easier to burn..."

That didn't really answer the problem but I nodded and said nothing.

Hiccup gave me a tour of the Great Hall, the place where they the village people, gather to strategize attacks, study, celebrate occasions, and hide during bouts of bad weather. It was a large building, almost twice the size of Hiccup's house, which was already by far the biggest house I could see in the village. The interior was stunningly. A large circular table took its place at the centre of the room, surrounded by many other normal tables. The torches on the wall made the room shine with a warm, olden feel, with paintings of past leader and their sons on the walls. Hiccup was in one of the pictures too, and that made him quite red when we passed by it. After showing me the Elder's House, the barn and the storehouse where they keep their weapons, Hiccup decided to show me the place he worked at: a Blacksmithing Forge owned by a man named Gobber. It was a rustic wooden building, with such a large pile of weapons that I could see it just through the window. At the front of the door of the forge was a sign with a tooth on it, and Hiccup explained that Gobber became a Dragon Dentist after the conflict was over.

It wasn't surprising that I couldn't link how those two jobs where related to one another.

I had also notice something on our visit. Even though Hiccup had told me not to talk to anyone, or do anything that would cause trouble, even if I did, I don't think anything I would have cause any trouble to the villagers at all. Usually when someone sees a stranger, the least they would do if give them an eye or at least look at them for a few seconds. And you'll think someone with a peculiar hair colour would stand out even more. But oddly enough, no one did. It was strange. Maybe Vikings had a bad sense of sight. Maybe they couldn't see beyond their bushy beards that clearly needed a shave….with shavers made of steel…or diamonds.

"I really expected more of a reaction from your village." I said jokingly." I mean, they don't even notice me at all."

"We don't get many good visitors, so new faces aren't really a delight to see here. But don't worry about it. It's just the Viking way."

"But you're a Viking. And you notice me." I pointed out.

He gestured vaguely at himself." Does this look like Viking material?"

For once, I was glad he was right.

Since Berk's only source of trading was through sea, the docks on Berk were the busiest part of the village. Built from the large cliff of Raven Point, large individual docks loaded and unloaded large cargo into the ships every day. A wooden walkway was even built above the docks so that the Vikings could keep view of oncoming ships.

"Hey is that an arena?"

"Umm... Uh..."

Sure enough, in the distance, I could see a large dome shaped arena. The top part of the dome was covered in large chains, rusted into a tangy orange from the work that had been done in it.

"That's an arena right?" I repeated excitedly. I guess in my mind, things with arenas usually involve fun and interesting. "That's so cool! Do you fight dragons there or something?"

"Ur... Not really..." He replied hesitantly. "I mean we did before but now we made it into our training academy-"

"The Dragon Training Academy? The one you own with all your friends? Let's go there I wanna see it!"

"NO!"

Hiccup's sudden yell filled the atmosphere around us with silence. Some of the villagers came around took a look on what was going on. (Add more stuff here)

"I mean, um, we can't. Not now. My friends are, um, busy." His reverted voice was timid and filled with unease. But I wasn't very bright, so I continued my pestering.

"It's ok! We don't have to disturb them or anything, we can just-"

Before I could finish the sentence, I felt a nudge on my side. It was Toothless. As I looked at him in annoyance, he gave me a serious glare, before gesturing his head towards Hiccup. I didn't quite get it at first, but then I saw Hiccup rubbing his arm. He always does that when he's nervous, avoiding eye contact with me or anyone around him. A wave of realisation and guilt wafted into my mind. It seems Hiccup had some issues with the arena, the place I wanted him to show me the most.

"I guess we can skip that for now… Sorry." I said, lowering my head apologetically. Hiccup looked at me with an awkward smile. I could see he felt bad as well.

"It's okay," he replied. "I'm sorry too. We can't go there now but I'll show it to you another time. I promise."

"Okay!" I answered joyfully. I know I could trust Hiccup. He's the type of guy that would easily concede to you, given the right amount of pushing. If he had a reason for not wanting to bring me there, it was definitely a good one. Besides, was the most reliable person I know of! Or at least, the only one. There was Reptile but…he is a lizard

Anyway, a promise is a promise and I was sure Hiccup would keep his word no matter what.

* * *

Toothless was one of the other issues I had. He was a Night Fury, and according to Hiccup, was supposed to be the most notorious and smartest out of all their kind. The black dragon seemed like a cool, majestic creature at first glimpse, but in truth, he was nothing like that at all. The best and only way I can describe the reptile is that he is an overly attached dragon who thinks that Hiccup is his boyfriend.

So I decided to become his personal annoyance system.

It was ridiculously enjoyable to see Reptile waking up to find that his bed was a frozen block. Bonus if he slipped on it trying to get up. It makes my day to see him trying to slide his way to a safe point, giving me a cursed eye as he slid past. Of course, there are some days the Night Fury got the better of me. Many a times in these few days have I ended up dealing with the hot plasma like stuff that comes out his mouth. One of the nights, he even drag me onto the roof of the house while I was asleep, which I barely stopped myself from rolling off afterwards.

There are times Reptile and I do get along too. We take good pride in being the ones to always mess up Hiccup's room. It was stupendously hilarious to see Hiccup's reaction to the aftermath, and Toothless and I always got a kick out of it. Or got kicked out because of it.

But there's been also a certain thing I discovered on my stay here, and that was that I could understand dragons... in a way. It happened when Hiccup took me to the village, and Toothless had gestured to me to stop harassing him about going to the arena. He stared at me, not moving his mouth or making a sound, but I was certain I heard a voice in my mind going:

((Shut up Jack. Can't you see the situation? ))

After we got back, while Hiccup was packing up the mess we made, I signalled to Toothless to meet me at the back of the house.

"Hey. I've got something to ask you."

((Urgh... What does the ice boy want from me now? )) I heard an annoyed voice say.

"The ice boy wants to know how you're doing that."

Toothless' eyes widened, staring at me in utter shock. There was a moment of silence, and then I heard the voice again. ((...Did you just reply to me?)) This time I was certain. It was definitely from the Night Fury.

"Well yeah." I answered. "I mean, there's no one around other than me." Toothless looked at me in an almost ridiculous manner, like he was talking to a ghost. "Wait. Don't tell me you of all things I know never had anyone to talk to before?"

((I did!)) A reply voiced out angrily in my head. ((But it was with the other dragons. This is astounding! H-How can a human... Even I never had a proper conversation with Hiccup before! ))

"You didn't? But I was sure you two were talking to each othe-"

((That's because Hiccup can work out what I'm thinking. But when it comes to understanding what I was actually saying, he doesn't get any of it at all.))

I watched as the dragon kept on mumbling to himself about our discovery. There weren't any voices in my head, just sounds of growls and grunts that came from him like any normal noise you would hear from a dragon. I guess this is what people called telepathy, only understanding when he was actually 'talking' to me. It was strange, talking to a dragon. Not to mention it was one of the things I couldn't ask my walking dictionary Hiccup about. But if Hiccup doesn't understand Toothless, then why do I always see him trying to talk to him?

"Repti- I mean Toothless. If Hiccup doesn't hear you, then why do you still try to talk to him?"

((You know Jack, when you hang around people like Hiccup, things can change. Miracles can happen. Hiccup has that power to put the impossible to the test, and I believe one day, he would be able to talk to me.)) He gave me a grin. That gummed up smile that everyone knows him for. ((But until then, I guess you'll have to do.))

I smiled. "Shut up Reptile."

So you see, Toothless and I sort of share this special relationship with each other. Even though we prank each other pretty much daily, try to mess with each other's lives weekly, and end up fighting over trivial things almost constantly...

"TOOTHLESS! JACK! DID YOU GUYS MESS UP MY ROOM AGAIN?!"Hiccup yelled at the top of his lungs.

...I say we're pretty good friends.

* * *

Speaking of dragons,

that day, I was curious about why there were so many dragons on Berk. It looked so natural to see the villagers using dragons to help out with their work, to see them putting up the decorations, to see them with the village kids running around in the snow. It was a bond you can only see between master and pet, or a loyal friend. But something about dragons and Vikings didn't click together. Weren't they supposed to hate each other?

The curiosity lingered on. So that night, I decided to inquire the all-great-and-mighty Hiccup to explain the history behind this confusing equation.

"Hey Hiccup, why are there so many dragons on Berk?" I asked.

"Oh no, there are usually more." He replied calmly. "But they're currently at their breeding ground now so we won't be seeing the rest of them till the beginning of spring."

There are more of them? Oh dear lord. My insides grew heavy to his answer. One Night Fury's more than enough to deal with. Can't imagine another hundred more of them raining down on Hiccup, or me.

Hiccup must have felt the uneasiness seeping out of me, because immediately after I had that thought, he added, "By the way, just in case you're wondering, Toothless is the only Night Fury around these parts."

That's much better. My dragon bothering services are only open to one dragon at a time.

But it still intrigues me though, that the Vikings are able to live so harmoniously with the dragons, not to mention letting them use their village as their swarming ground.

"I thought you guys hated each other?" I asked again, quite bluntly this time. This ancient conflict between man and beast is a well-known fact to anyone alive, so it was quite useless to hide it.

"Well..." Hiccup started, bending down to stroke the dragon which had instinctively padded its way towards his desk side. "It all started one day with this fella right here."

I sat down on the wooden floor as Hiccup began his story. He was a brilliant storyteller. Through his words and occasionally hand gestures, I could picture the whole series of events in my mind. From his first meeting with Reptile, to the tough training he had with the other Vikings-to-be. It was amusing when he described his fellow mates, especially when it came to the last person, this Astrid girl or something of that name. It seems that Hiccup has feelings for the female, and I instinctively made a note of that to mock him afterwards. As Hiccup carried on, the events became more and more intense. I held my legs up to my chest in excitement as I imagined him bravely battling a monstrous dragon he called Red Death with his fellow friends by his side. Using his skills as a tactician to lead his team, he devised a whole series of plans to stop the monster. The scrawny boy I that was in front of me was a vision of heroism in my mind, yet he in flesh he was still humble and modest as he described the scene. I sort of wished that Hiccup could have find me a year earlier, then maybe Hiccup wouldn't have lost his leg…

"...and then a year passed and here we are now." he finished. "I hope that didn't bore you too much."

"Not at all." I replied, giving him a small applause. "In fact, I quite like it! Mind if I use it someday?"

"Why not? Just, don't change me into a weirdo when you tell it."

I laughed, and then I noticed Hiccup taking something from under his bed. It was a book. Old and battered, but maintained significantly well. It was quite a large book, about twice the size of an average one, and it made Hiccup look quite small in size. Hiccup brought the large book to his desk. Sitting down, he opened its large leather cover and flipped through it. Inside was a whole array of pictures, diagrams and details of different dragons, all drawn to proportion and were almost life like. He continued flipping through the book till he reached the last league of the book, where it was just a series of white pages.

"What's that Hiccup?" I had to ask.

"It's the book of dragons. This is where we record all our knowledge of dragons in. And now I'm gonna fill in a page of your own."

"Oh I see... What? Hey! I'm not a dragon!"

"You shoot beams of ice and you can fly. Sounds pretty dragonish to me."

"But... But... Yeah guess that's true."

"I'm just kidding Jack." He grinned, twirling his charcoal pen. "You're not a dragon. Dragons can come when their called, listen when they need to, and are able to carry people around with ease."

I crossed my arms and pouted. "Now that's just mean Hiccup."

He chuckled, stroking the blank page. "This book is really important to us. It contains the data we collected about the dragons for almost a century, and I was given the task of filling in the rest of the pages. Anything inside here is like a treasure to me. I'm making an exception to use some of the back pages though. You don't know anything about yourself, and I think to make the situation easier for each other, we can accumulate the things we know about you in this book. And add more as you remember."

Hiccup continued filling up the page, adding any detail he knew about me into the pages of the book. In the end, we spent the whole evening trying to add and change the information. I for one wanted a good impression of myself, so that when others see my page, they'll think highly of me and not as some boring guy. Dear Reptile on the other hand had quickly decided this was a chance to belittle me, and kept nudging Hiccup to write ridiculous facts that don't make any sense. Eventually we finished only a single page of words and sketches. It wasn't much, just an average physical outlook of me and some things I could do. There weren't any real details about me at all.

I guess Hiccup doesn't know me as much as I thought, not like I knew myself well either.

* * *

That night I had a dream.

I was trapped in a pool of darkness. It was cold and the blackness around me was almost suffocating. I was scared and I wanted to get away, but I couldn't move my body. Suddenly, I heard something. A cracking noise from above. I wanted to open my eyes and see what was going on, but the weight of the dark kept them shut. Without warning, I felt my body rising, like it was being lifted out of the cold, and for the first time, I could finally open my eyes. It was just a glimpse; I didn't have enough energy to open them fully. But the first thing that I saw was the moon. It was so big, so bright, so white, that my eyes couldn't take the light and wanted to shut themselves again. But the moon looked at me and with a gentlest of voice, it spoke to me.

_'It's nice to meet you, Jack Frost.'_

The last thing I saw before I fell unconscious again was a pair of emerald green eyes.

I woke up in Hiccup's room, resting on the 'bed' we made together. It was still dark, but the faint glimpse of light from the horizon indicated night's end. I saw the moon beside me, looking down upon me through the window. It was big, bright and white like in the dream, but it said nothing. I stared at it as it slowly made its way towards the horizon.

"When will you speak to me again?" I said unconsciously. Its silent stare and blank look mocked my question, but I replied nothing to it either. Somehow, I knew that the answers to my memories were hidden deep inside its bright walls, hidden from me. I held my hand out towards it. It was so close, so close yet so far…..

A sudden yawn broke me from my thoughts, and the moon slipped out of my grasp and escaped down the horizon. Looking down, I could see Hiccup's sleepy face as he stretched and yawned. He turned to me, and with his sleepy little eyes he smiled.

"Good morning … Jack." That small, clumsy gesture, that short, simple greeting, it swept all my anxiety away. There was only one person who knows me the most, and is trying everything he can to help me live my life to the fullest. There was only one person who looked at me differently, and accepted me for what I am. After all that's happen, I was certainly grateful for one thing:

"Good morning, Hiccup. Ready for a new day?"

I'm glad I got to meet Hiccup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :) A favorite or review is always appreciated.
> 
> More to come soon!


	6. Listen to the Jingle of the Bell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All characters and their original movies belong to their respective creators.
> 
> Find my original post of this series here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8828817/1/Dragons-Over-the-Ice

Winter.

Though most people would spend their days sitting in front of the fireplace, reading a book, catching up on some sleep, and most definitely not thinking of going outside, it was  _this_  time of the year that the Isle of Berk comes alive. Bustling Vikings rush to and fro, doing their part to prepare for the long and cold winter. Snoggletog was just a couple of weeks away, and with most of the decorations put up before the migration, everything was in tip-top order. Wood was collected and warm blankets were sewn; fish and crops that were harvested the season before were preserved, and the animals were all herded and ready for the upcoming weather. The temperature over the past few weeks had gradually dropped from 'somewhat a chill' to 'bickering icicles'. But the Vikings, with muscle-bounded arms and blubber like a blue whale, the frigid conditions had little effect on them.

Well, at least for most of them.

The elderly and children were an exception, but a single Viking walked through the village, vulnerable to the freezing weather. The sleeves on his oversized green tunic were down to the tips of his small cold hands, and an extra furry brown vest hung over his skinny little shoulders, covering a part of his belt and long, dark green pants. And a single Viking-styled boot prodded along next to a simple metal appendage.

This skinny one-legged boy was none other than Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, heir to the Hairy Hooligan Tribe and the famous Dragon Trainer of the archipelago.

Trotting on Hiccup's right was a dragon. It was a Night Fury, the most mysterious, intelligent and dangerous of all the dragons. Yet unfaithful to its characteristics, this dragon was called Toothless, named by the dragon trainer himself. Few knew about the reason he named the dragon such an odd name. However, the only reason why Toothless had such a name was because of its retractable teeth.

On his other side was a boy, with eyes as blue as the winter sky and hair as white as the snow that fell from it. Unlike Hiccup, the cold seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever. He was dressed in a single thin, white shirt that was barely covered by an open vest, and a pair of battered trousers added to his light clothing. The only thing on him that looked feasible enough to keep him warm was a brown cloak covering his back. In the boy's hand was a long, frost covered staff, which he twirled around as he floated alongside Hiccup, kicking his barefooted feet in the air. This boy was Jack Frost, an adventurous, excited teenager that Hiccup had mysteriously found in a secluded part of the forest. Little is known about him, by Hiccup, and Jack himself, _but_ Jack was gifted by Odin (or Loki), for he was able to cast magic and create ice

Jack, Toothless and Hiccup had become fast friends over the past few weeks, taking time to train themselves every morning. Jack would learn how to do different flying skills with Toothless, and the both of them would learn to master their aiming and powers with Hiccup's help(mostly by inventing things to aid them) **.**  Jack's flying has improved significantly over the past few weeks, so the rocks were off him, much to his delight. Not to mention he had learnt a few simple tricks like making snowballs with his staff and knowing how to lightly freeze things. Very simple tricks however, nothing really special yet. Try as he might **,**  but it seemed he did not have enough power to do anything other than make small batches of ice.

And on this winter, a perfectly normal day with clear blue skies and few excited gusts of cold winter air wafting through their hair. Hiccup and Jack were heading out to one of their training grounds. They always headed out early at dawn for a reason Jack did not know, many times in a rush. But on this particular occasion, it was pretty much midday when they left the house, and Hiccup looked surprisingly calm about it.

"We're out later than usual. Finally overslept for once?" Jack teased as he bobbed along next to Hiccup.

"What?" he smirked, looking at him with a glint in his eye. "Are you saying you enjoy our early practice routine? To be flipped out of bed so early in the morning (Jack lived in a hammock attached to the ceiling of Hiccup's bedroom.) and rushed out with only a hint of breakfast? I didn't know you were so into this Jack, maybe I should bring back the rocks too..."

Jack shook his head violently upon hearing this.

Hiccup laughed, replacing his expression with a friendly, more familiar grin. "I just thought that today's quite a chilly day and we should take it easy and sleep in a bit later than usual."

Jack happily agreed to the idea, but Toothless knew this wasn't the truth. The only reason why they were able to wake up so late was because Hiccup had heard from his father that the Hofferson Clan, which was Astrid's family, were out on a fishing trip today. No Astrid means no reason to rush, since the rest of the gang were late sleepers, other than Fishlegs, but he would be too busy inside tending to his dragon to go outside. Hiccup and Jack slowly strolled through the village, greeting the elderly and letting the children pat Toothless as they walked towards the entrance to the forest. However, as they were a few feet inside the village square, a high-pitched squeak voiced out from behind them.

"Hiccup!"

They turned around to see a little girl breaking out of a group of children and running up to them. Her chestnut brown hair was braided into two peculiar, horn-like pigtails, with loose hair stuck out in various places. The bubbly little brunette was Elder Gothl's granddaughter, Excellinor, and was someday destined to inherit the powers of the Elders. But now, at the tender age of eight, she was too young to learn her teachings just yet and spent most of her time with the other children playing around and listening to the teachings of her grandmother.

"Hey there Excellinor, need anything from me?" Hiccup asked as he bent over to greet the little girl.

"Well, I do have a favour to ask you." Excellinor replied cheekily, her pigtails swaying from side to side as she looked up at them with her feisty dark brown eyes." It's also a task from grandmother, so you have to help me no matter what!"

"What's with this kid? And what's with her hair?" Jack spurted out. Hiccup ignored him.

"You see," she continued, oblivious to Jack's statement. "My dragon Peka wants to go to the dragon nesting islands, but she missed her chance during the migration and she's still too young to know the way. Won't you please take her there for me?"

"Why does she want to go now? It's a bit too late to go there during this time of the month."

"I'm not sure either. She just wants to go all of a sudden. We tried to fly there ourselves but we didn't make it very far, so I asked grandmother, and grandmother told me to ask you."

Hiccup sighed. He was hoping he could wiggle his way out of this job. It was really quite late to go to the island now. Most of the dragons would have been done mating by then, and Elder Gothl's tasks have never been an easy one. But now since the village elder had been involved and asked him to do the job, indirectly or not, he didn't really have a say in this conversation no matter what he would had answered.

"Oh alright then, I'll go grab some supplies and we'll meet back here in an hour."

"Yippee!" Excellinor cried, her wiggling pigtails wobbling from side to side in excitement. And with a late yell of" Don't be late now!" she skipped off back into the crowd of children.

Hiccup turned to look at Jack, who was utterly bewildered from the change in plans. He would definitely have some explaining to do.

"Hiccup! You just got done in by a crazy little girl!"

A lot of explaining to do.

* * *

After going to the blacksmith and his house to get some supplies ready, Hiccup was prepped to set off on his short trip. The island was at least a day's journey there and back. Baring in mind the incident a few weeks ago, Hiccup made sure he was prepared for any problems that might come his way: tools to fix anything broken, cloths and several metal parts if he needed to replace anything. He even modified Toothless' tailfin so that if he or it falls off, the structure would stay rigid, allowing the dragon to make a feasible landing instead of crashing onto the ground. As he got ready, he had also took the opportunity to explain the situation to a once confused Jack Frost, who was now absolutely delighted to be heading off the island for the first time, flying around and bothering Toothless more than usual with fancy somersaults and bumping of the sides.

An hour later, they met up with one very excited Excellinor and Peka. The little girl was standing amongst a crowd of excited children, while a dragon next to her nestled in a pile of soft grass a few feet from her, continuously petted by tiny little hands. Excellinor's grandmother had also dropped by to see them off, standing close by watching her successor quietly.

"Hey guys!" Excellinor said with much enthusiasm when she saw the trio walking towards the square. She motioned them forward and gestured towards the sleeping dragon, which had just woken up. "This is Peka!"

Peka was a gronkle. She looked much like Fishlegs' dragon, Meatlug, but was more of a sandy brown, like the skin of a perfectly grilled fish. She had the same eager and impatient brown eyes her own partner has, and to Hiccup's surprise, was very young as well. Too young, in fact to be heading to the island at all.

'Excellinor must have gotten her during last year's Snoggletog.' thought Hiccup, recalling the mass of hatchlings from the year before.

Even though she was barely a year old, Peka was almost the size of an older dragon. A good year of daily treats and fish given by the village children had brought the little one up to its current proportions. Hiccup wondered to himself whether he should start teaching them the proper way to take care of the dragons, but as much as the children looked up to him and respected him, they wouldn't have listened anyway.

Hiccup was about to approach the girl when he was stopped by the girl's grandmother. The wrinkly old woman looked up at Hiccup with her mysterious, half closed eyes. "Be careful on your trip young Haddock." Her voice creaked like an old door. "The strong will become stronger. The strange will become stranger. Overcome these obstacles, and the gates to your next task will open". Before he could ask her anything, she hobbled off towards the side, leaving a trail of holes in the snow as she moved.

"You ready to head off?" Hiccup asked as he finally approached the girl, watching as she fiddled with something in her hands.

"Hold on a moment. I just need to tie this up." Her eyes not moving away from her dragon as she tied a metal object onto its neck. Upon closer inspection, Hiccup saw that it was a bell, a silver bell attached to a leash around Peka's neck.

"Peka loses her way easily, so I usually put this bell on her when I'm not around." The brunette explained. "It'll make it easier to keep track of her if she ever flies away."

"That's a great idea Excellinor," Hiccup replied, slightly eyeing on a certain teenage boy. "Maybe I should put a bell on someone else too."

Excellinor looked up at her dragon's eyes, glimmering innocently as it looked back at her. "Peka, I want you to be a good girl and listen to the big brothers here okay?" She said gently, stroking the gronkle's face tenderly in her hands. "You know it yourself you're not good with directions so make sure never to run off." Peka grunted understandingly, moving closer towards the little girl as she gave it a hug. "Come back soon okay?"

Excellinor slowly backed away from the dragon, joining her watching grandmother at the side. She nodded to Hiccup, who nodded back in mutual approval. He turned his head towards Jack, who was holding onto Peka's leash, and returned his gaze towards the distant sea to give the signal.

"Let's fly."

* * *

At the command, Toothless shot straight up into the air, launching off with a gust of wind and soaring gracefully around their waving spectators before they flew towards the sea. Jack and Peka tailed behind like an owner taking his overly hyper pet out for a walk. Peka was young but even a baby dragon would know how to fly. She jittered around the empty sky as if she had a good dose of sugar, dragging an irritated Jack around as he yelled at the top of his voice, "Stop flying around you stupid dragon!", before giving a scream of frustration, then complaining loudly to Hiccup that he was hating this field trip. Hiccup hadn't been listening though. He was too occupied about Elder Gothl's words to him _._ _The strong will become stronger. The strange will become stranger. Overcome these obstacles, and the gates to your next task will open_.

Hiccup knew that this trip wasn't going to be an easy one, since the elder had personally told him to complete it, but her words created a myriad of feelings within him. Was it advice for him? A tip? A precaution? Hiccup didn't know. All he knew was that somewhere along this journey to the nesting islands, something was definitely going to happen.

Eventually, Peka calmed down and the two pairs of humans and dragons were able to have a nice flight through the azure winter sky. Now with his frustration lifted, Jack had his job as a tourist back again, sailing through the wide yonder blue and admiring the vast clear mirror below. Hiccup had taken a break from thinking about what Elder Gothl said and took the opportunity to enjoy the view. He had flown out to sea, and even to the nesting islands before. But even after numerous times, it still felt it was a first to him. The sky was a majestic blue and the sea moved and swayed so gracefully like a scene from a painting. As they flew they watched a few packs of dragons fly by, and breathing in the clean, salty air around them.

"It's beautiful here Hiccup!" Jack exclaimed, doing a simple barrel roll in the air to catch up with the black dragon. "We should get off the island more often. You know, explore stuff and find adventures? Your life would definitely have more meaning than just staying in Berk all the time."

"I don't think you can handle a big adventure just yet." Hiccup recalled the countless life or death occasions throughout the past year. "Trust me. It's more exhausting than you think."

"Yeah yeah sure…. Hiccup look. The sky…"

The sky was getting darker as they flew by. Grey clouds loomed over the horizon, layering each other until various shades of ashen grey were consuming the heavens. Small patches of white and blue struggled in vain to stay alive as the muted silver horde consumed them one by one, their silent screams inaudible to the living as they shrank effortlessly till there was no trace of existence left.

"A storm?" Jack asked, a sense of worry in his voice,

"Probably just a passing one. It'll wear off in half an hour or so."

"Are you sure Hiccup? I mean, those clouds don't look like they came here for a rest stop."

"Relax Jack. Storms during this time of the month aren't that bad. A bunch of snow here, a handful of hail there. Totally normal conditions."

They continued their journey, hoping that the storm would move on quickly. It didn't. Already, gusty winds had started to pick up, drops of icy cold rain pelted down on them,making the temperature decline drastically. The laser show of thunder and lightning became more frequent. By the time they decided that the weather wasn't going to disperse any time soon, they were already entering the mouth of the beast.

"You said storms during this time of year aren't that bad!"

"I did! Something to this extent shouldn't be occurring during this time of the month, it's far too early..."

Hiccup thought hard. He didn't have a choice of turning back now. They made it all the way out here, and they definitely would not be able to outrun something formed by Thor himself. Hiccup looked at his companions, who were trying their best to keep up moving through the gales. Peka was looking quite tired since she was still young, and Jack wasn't that perfect at flying either **.**  Holding on to Peka's leash, Hiccup could see the fatigue slowly building up upon the boy. Toothless' rhythm had begun to slow bit by bit as he flew. Hiccup himself was not doing so well either. Even though he wasn't flying like the rest of them, his wet clothes bit his skinny body, the high winds making them colder and colder as they entered the storm. They had to get out of there. Or at least, as far away from the storm as possible. Using his knowledge of the skies, and racking his brain for similar occasions, he instructed his dragon.

"Toothless, bring us up. We have to get as high as we can below the cloud cover."

"Cloud cover? Up? We're still gonna continue flying through the storm?!" Jack cried in utter disbelieve. But before he could get an answer, Hiccup was flown above the storm clouds.

He followed Hiccup up above the clouds, contemplating to himself that Hiccup might have gone a bit mad. But as soon as Jack's head emerge from the black smog below, what Hiccup had said wasn't total absurdity anymore: They were in the middle of two layers of clouds. Under them was the violent uproar of the tempest clouds below slowly covering their view of the turbulent ocean, but above the clouds were white and puffy, as if there was never a disturbance in the skies at all.

"Don't go above the cloud cover!" Hiccup warned in the distance. "There's not enough oxygen there and it'll be too cold for us to handle if we go above them." He gripped his saddle as hard as he could as the wild winds continued burst through the cracks in the clouds below like aerial geysers, shooting blasts of bone shivering air. He spat out some hair that had ventured into his mouth and yelled out. "Everyone! Keep your eyes open! Try to spot any islands we can take shelter at!"

With all their effort, they scanned the sea below them, watching, hoping and praying that an island would appear before their view was completely obscured by the ominous clouds below. It was just before everything below them was plugged off by the veil of blackness that Toothless noticed a hint of green with his falcon-like eyes – a small island, a distance away.

"((There's land ahead!))" roared Toothless to Jack, who was the only one who could understand him.

"Hiccup! Over there! I think Toothless spotted an island!"

"Excellent! Now we have to make sure we time our descent or else we'll-"

Without warning, a bolt of lightning came surging down from above, right in the middle of the group. In the commotion, Jack's hands loosen their grip on Peka's leash, a loud jingling was heard, and in that split second, the panicked dragon flew off, away from the group and right into the storm below.

"Peka!" The boys cried as they watched the dragon disappear into the black monster of a storm below.

"We have to go after her!" Hiccup shouted. "Come on!"

Toothless dove down, shooting away from the ghostly pale ceiling of the cloud cover into the darkness below. Immediately, Jack and Hiccup could see what they were up against. Thunder and lightning lit up the pitch black sky in a flurry of blinding flashes as winds blew at hundred miles per hour speeds. The violent downpour of half rain, half snow both soaked and froze them as they flew amongst the commotion. It was as if the great Thor himself had started a fearsome battle in the sky, attacking the gigantic stampeding frost giants as his thunder and lightning fell to earth like rain. Even Toothless was finding it hard to concentrate as the chaotic winds and loud noises got stronger and stronger.

As they proceeded further down towards the eye of the storm, things turned from bad to worse. The violent blizzard plus downpour made visibility almost zero, and the freezing air numbed the flesh of anyone in its way, it was so cold that it hurt just breathing it in. To make matters worse than it already was, Toothless and Hiccup were like conductors in the middle of an electric storm. With metal prosthetics for both rider and dragon, the deadly lightning took the opportunity to use them to its advantage, sending spears of a raging Thor down upon them. Hiccup was doing his best to manoeuvre Toothless to dodge the lightning strikes, many a bare miss out of range. The lightning had less effect on the dragon. Being a wild dragon once, Toothless had experience flying in storms, even dodging lightning. But that was before he had to rely on a rider. The lightning had effect on the poor boy, for every bolt, dodged or not, slowly blinded him, forcing him to rely on mere instincts and the frantic yells of Jack as he and Toothless twist and turned maniacally.

Until the inevitable happened.

A sudden bolt of lightning struck unbelievably close to the dragon's side, barely missing Hiccup, but striking the buckle of the leather restraints. The burning leather jerked Hiccup to his side, causing the Night Fury to tilt over. His other restrain snapped. His gripped loosened by slippery wet hands. And there he went.

Frozen, hurt and blinded, Hiccup fell from the sky.

In normal circumstances (clearly this was not the first time Hiccup had been put on the doorstep of death) **,**  Toothless would have enough time to turn himself to the correct position before falling after his rider, allowing the boy to swiftly strap himself back and take control of the situation. But this was no normal circumstance. Toothless could barely prevent himself from spiralling out of control, and his rider was in no condition to take control of anything, much less save himself from falling. He gave a roar to Jack, who was already a burst of white as he sped down to save his falling friend.

To be honest, Hiccup himself had no idea what was going on. At first he was holding on to his dragon's black body, trying to stay conscious and alert to his surroundings, when suddenly another spark of light blinded his eyes again. His side suddenly felt immensely hot, and leaned over to avoid the painful sensation. Then, he felt nothing in front of him. It was still black in front of him but it felt empty, as if Toothless had mysteriously faded away. He noticed the wind's switch in directions, from a full front collision to his face, to everywhere else on his body. It took Hiccup a while, through the confusion and sudden change, to realize he had slipped off Toothless' back, and was, in fact, falling towards the ground several miles away, and what seemed to be his doom. But as soon as he realized that, he had jerked to a halt. Squinting to see what had happen, he could barely see it, but his black background in front of him had turned a pure shade of white.

"Hiccup, a-are you alright?" Jack held Hiccup in his arms, asking exhaustively between breaths.

"Yeah I'm fine." He replied, still disoriented from the sudden situation, still looking around in confusion. "How bout Toothless?"

"He managed to land safely on one of the islands. He looks fine so he should be okay."

"That's good..." Hiccup sigh a breath of relief.

However, he noticed someone was missing. Someone whom they were supposed to escort to the nesting islands. Someone whose owner is waiting anxiously for back home and entrusted them with this task. He jolted into full consciousness, and with a nervous voice, asked.

"…Where's Peka?"

Jack almost dropped Hiccup, realizing they had lost their irreplaceable package, Spinning around, he scanned the horizon for the lost dragon, but there was nothing but dark skies around him. However, out of the claps of thunder and deafening rain, he heard an unnatural sound, a soft jingling of a bell.

He turned his body towards the source, only seeing the dark silhouette of a dragon flying away towards the unknown. "Peka! Peka! You're going the wrong way! "Jack yelled, trying to get the attention of the get-away dragon. "PEKA!"

But it was too late. Peka had already flown off into the distance, disappearing into the shadows.

And as Hiccup, Jack and Toothless watch helplessly as the silhouette of the dragon faded away, they could hear the vanishing clinking noise of the bell around her neck.

"Jingle Jingle Jingle Jingle….."

And everything was silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :) A favorite or review is always appreciated.
> 
> More to come soon!


	7. Listen to the Jingle of the Bell Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All characters and their original movies belong to their respective creators.
> 
> Find my original post of this series here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8828817/1/Dragons-Over-the-Ice

Deep grey storm clouds slowly blended in with the fading light. Evening was settling itself in, oblivious to the darkness that has already took over the skies. It wedged itself among the scatter of cracks, turning grey to dusk, and dusk to utter blackness.

Among the blackness, however, were two figures, descending slowly as the horizon behind them gradually ate itself away. Jack and Hiccup had flew over to reunite with Toothless on the island's beach; a small margin of sand and rocks surrounding what seemed to be the cropped off section of a dense coniferous forest. Snow drew marks where the land met the sea, indicating the wax and wane of the tides with a gradient of yellow ochre to white. A quick discussion of the exhausted group led to the plan of camping on the beach for the night, hoping that maybe, with any luck, a small dragon would spot the glow of the campfire and return.

Jack scoured the beach for firewood as Hiccup rested with Toothless around a cluster of large rocks. The lightning had messed with Hiccup's eyes that he found it a blur just looking straight, more so searching for supplies, or even make a proper supper, and with daylight at its end, there was no time to hunt for food. Dinner was the stale bread that Hiccup had packed for the journey; hard at first, but a few drops of water and a quick heat on the flames made it a satisfying dish for their hungry and awaiting taste buds.

"Wait, you're telling me you got struck by lightning before?" Jack asked as he nibbled on the last of his bread. Hiccup was lying down on Toothless' side, his hand supporting his head. A wet cloth covered the boy's eyes as he ate his food.

"Yeah. Not long ago. About last summer in Berk. Knocked me out for a couple of days but nothing else really."

"Man... "Jack leaned back slightly, watching as the night fully kicked in. "You must be pretty lucky. This lightning doesn't just look like it's there for show."

Hiccup grimaced. "I'm not so lucky this time though. Maybe I should've just let the damn thing strike me."

"Then I'll have to tell your father that a lightning bolt fried his only son."

Hiccup paused for a moment, imagining the scene in his mind.

"That's not funny, Jack." He replied.

The white-haired boy gave him a grin, but his expression darkened soon after.

"So, how are they? Your eyes I mean."

"They're fine, I guess. Though they still sting a bit," admitted Hiccup, removing the cloth from his face. "Being amongst all that light for too long must have been rough on them."

Jack stared at him worryingly, looking at the two emeralds that were still shining even after the ordeal. Despite his distorted vision, Hiccup could feel the continuous stream of concern from his companion, even Toothless, who was resting as they talked, had woken up upon hearing about the status on his eyes.

"Relax." Hiccup tried again in assuring the boy, "It's just bit blurry, that's all."

The doubtful face before him questioned his words.

"I'll be fine, Jack," reaffirmed Hiccup. "It's not like I can't see. They should be back to normal in a couple of days, hopefully. Struck by lightning before remember?"

Jack gave Hiccup a smile of relief, before reaching over and taking the cloth, still warm from Hiccup's heat. With a touch of his staff, the heat escaped from the cloth, and cooled to an icy temperature. "I know its cold out here and all, but I think this'll help to ease that sting of yours."

Gingerly, Hiccup place it back over his eyes, despite the initial sharp chill on his tired face, it numbed the pain, appeasing his discomfort. "Thanks Jack." He said, the edges of his lips curling in soothing relief. "It feels much better now."

Jack smiled in returned, glad to be of help to his friend.

"I'm gonna get some rest, I think some shut eye would help too." Hiccup added, turning slightly to his side. "You should sleep as well. We've got a long day ahead tomorrow if we're gonna fine our missing dragon."

"Sure, I'll keep watch for a bit before I do."

The conversation ended, leaving Jack alone in his thoughts. He looked over towards the sea; the dark pool of liquid went on endlessly for miles, shimmering slightly as the fire's vivid glow reflected faintly on the water, along with the sound of empty crashes of the waves. Jack didn't like it, the silence; it made him feel uncomfortable for some reason, especially with his companion lying down with a cloth on of his face like a deceased man.

"...Hey Hiccup?" Jack started.

Hiccup didn't reply. The lad was sound asleep. Jack had watched the young viking sleep many times during his few weeks with him, and he always found it intriguing that no matter how mighty or menacing or heroic a person was, once he was asleep, he was reduced to a mere child with his dreams. Even Hiccup, who he knew deep down was probably extremely worried about Peka, had a smile so calm, so peaceful, without any sign of worry concealed in his bright, green eyes.

Jack laid down, his head towards the stars.

"Don't worry Hiccup. We'll find her." He said, before closing his eyes. Slowly but surely, he too drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 

The trio started their search for the missing dragon early the next morning, looking around the beach for any signs or clues on her whereabouts. Even though it was morning, the skies around them looked as dull as they evening before, with no trace of the winter blue sky that always greeted them on Berk. Jack took a circle around the beach, but there were no tracks of the gronkle, or any other dragons or creatures at all. In fact, other than the dense cluster of coniferous trees, the island had an eerie lack of any sort of life form. And with another breakfast of leftover bread, the list of unfortunate events went on and on and on.

One thing that did have a positive light, at least, was Hiccup. He felt better after a night's rest, but although he was well enough for it, he still decided against flying through the unfamiliar forest without getting hurt.

"There's no sign of anyone around the island. Do you think she flew somewhere else?" Jack asked his companion. The forest itself was eerily barren of any life form. No chirping of birds, or scurrying in the distance, only the empty rustling of the tall pines that seem to go on around the whole island.

"I doubt so," he replied, remembering the empty horizon. "She might be a baby, and even if there were any islands nearby, she should know better than flying off aimlessly in the dark."

Jack sighed, "This smells troublesome, Hiccup."

((Yeah... This forest smells weird, Jack.))

Jack look towards the other voice. To Hiccup, it was nothing but a grunt or a growl, but to him, it was the voice of his other companion. Toothless and Jack have been talking to each other since the day Jack found out about it, and as promise, he kept their conversations secret. Usually they would only chat when Hiccup wasn't around, when Hiccup was busy preparing lunch or while he was away or asleep, but the boy was on the other side of the dragon, and that wasn't very far at all.

"What do you mean it smells weird? Smells like any other forest to me," Jack whispered as he tried not to blow his cover. "And didn't you tell me not to talk to you when Hiccup's around?"

((I wouldn't talk now either unless it was important.)) The dragon responded. ((And I'm saying that this forest doesn't smell like the rest of the island, like it was placed here.))

"The forest smells weird, so what? There's no way that anyone can plant a whole forest here, Toothless." hissed Jack. "I may not have much experience with a lot of things, but even I know for sure that that can't be done."

((I know that. But something's definitely not right here.))

"What do you want me to do then? Tell Hiccup?"

((What? No! How's he going to react when you tell him that I said-))

"What's wrong bud?" Hiccup suddenly interrupted, stopping to stroke the dragon's scaly head. "Why all the growling? Did you figure out where Peka is?"

Toothless turn his head to face Jack, shifting himself closer towards Hiccup.

"Is something the matter Jack?" Hiccup asked, turning his attention towards the other boy. Toothless at queue gave a short huff.

((Go on. Tell him.)) It meant.

"What?" Jack's expression responded in disarray.

((Just don't come to me if he starts questioning your sanity.)) The dragon eyed in response.

"Traitor!" Jack eyed back.

He then noticed his friend, who was still waiting for an answer, watching every movement he did, and most probably judging his sanity.

"I… Ur…umm…"

Hiccup raised his eyebrows.

"I… I think something's up with this forest Hiccup."

"Hmm? How so?"

"It's… hard to explain," Jack's mind rummaged through what Toothless had said to him. "Like somebody placed it here?"

The boy's eyebrows furrowed. "That's not possible. Stop acting weird, Jack."

The reply he received was swift, in comparison to the amount of hesitation put into his own little sentence. Picking up what's left of his pride, Jack continued walking, slowly catching up to Hiccup and the snickering dragon who had continued off without him.

As the trio, got closer to the centre of the island, the trees panned out into a beautiful glade, shaping an empty white field with its thick leaves into a large round circle. The ends of every branch touched tips with another's, until they surrounded the place like a tall fence, cropping a circle out of the sky.

"What is this place?" Hiccup said in awe as they stepped into the ring of trees. "I never seen something like this before."

Jack on the other hand, wasn't so keen about it. "Toothless was right." He muttered. "There's something up with this forest…"

Toothless growled in agreement, sniffing the mysterious air.

"Oh come on guys it's beautiful!" Hiccup remarked, pointing up towards the grey circle that parallel the field. "I think it'll be a great place for future uses!"

Jack was about to reply when his ears caught something familiar. It was soft, and muffled, but it was an unmistakable jingling. He turned his head to face the sound, and noticed a lump of brown amidst the snow on the other side of the field.

"Hiccup over there!" He yelled in excitement as he flew towards it, putting his staff down to sweep the snow off its back. And there, asleep in the snow, was Peka.

"That was easier than I thought." Hiccup panted as he caught up with Jack. "I was pretty certain she would gone off further than that."

"It doesn't matter does it? We found her and that's all that matters-oh her rope is stuck." The rope was tangled between a couple of tree roots partially buried in the snow.

"Well, at least that explains why she was sleeping out here, I guess." Walking over to Toothless, Hiccup grabbed a small knife from the supplies. "Let me take over."

He exchanged places with the white haired boy, kneeling down beside the dragon as he started to cut the tangled rope. He was about halfway through when Peka start to whimper. Her sleepy face start to tense up in worry, struggling as she tried to break free.

"It's okay girl, it's okay." Hiccup tried to calm the struggling dragon. "Hold on, we're gonna get you out soon."

But Peka wasn't the only one in a fret. Toothless was on edge too. His ears were bent back, glancing around anxiously as he tried to hurry the group. ((Something's coming. We need to leave!)) He warned Jack, who was confused to why the dragon was so nervous. Until he looked up at the sky.

"Urr… Hiccup? We need to leave…"

"Give me a moment. The rope's build to hold dragons you know."

"Then can you explain to me what that is?"

Out of the blue, the sky had darkened, faster and more ominous than any of them had ever experienced before. The calm grey shrouds of clouds from before started to coil and writhe. The snow around them start to follow the increasingly strong wind, circling around them in a large frenzied swirl.

"Are you done yet?!" Jack yelled as the bellowing winds got louder and louder.

"Almost…. There! I'm d- "and Hiccup's voice suddenly disappeared.

"Hiccup?" Jack turned towards his companions, only to find them missing from their spot. They had yet to move, yet to speak finish their sentence, but they were not there.

"Hiccup?! Where did you go?!" He cried out, but the chaotic wail of the wind muted his voice and the snow blurred his sight.

"Hiccup! We have to leave…" Jack trailed off, something knocking his foot had caught his attention.

"…What the?"

Jack's staff had begun to shake on its own, bouncing from side to side like a possessed stick beginning a wild and crazy dance. It lifted itself in the air, wobbling slightly, before it was grabbed by its owner just in time for it to jerk towards the centre of the storm, tugging violently in his hands like a struggling child. The staff was telling him something.

Cautiously, Jack followed the staff's will, walking ever closer to the centre. With every small step, gusts of violent wind hurled cold snow onto his body, only to be blown off and replaced with even more snow. And with every one of those steps, the staff shook even more violently. Jack only gripped tighter with each tug, not noticing the faint white swirls starting to emit from the tip of the staff. And with a final step, just like a tornado, he walked into the eye of the storm. The centre was quiet and still, a hollow tube of white carnage, spinning a wall of wind towards the darkened sky.

It was then that he realised what his staff was doing, the white swirls had accumulated and increased in size, fanning out like vines around him. Jack, without a thought, focused and closed his eyes, continuingly gripping the mad stick as it waved wildly in his hands. Until, all at once, a tiny spark of blue flashed within the spirals of magic, and in that instance, the storm started to collapsed. Starting from the top, it was absorbed by the staff, sucking it in like a genie to a lamp, a whirlpool in the sea, forcefully, violently, and with every amount absorbed, the staff shone brighter and brighter.

A faint silhouette appeared in front of Jack whilst he focused all he had on the staff. It watched him intently, the staff continuing to absorb the storm. Even among the chaos, Jack still noticed it, and an uneasy feeling welled up inside him. He knew that person, the shadow beyond the wall was so familiar to his eyes. Yet, he didn't.

"Who are you?" Jack asked through the storm.

The figure did not reply, but pointed to his staff. Jack looked down; glowing blue veins were travelling from his staff, to his hands and up into his sleeves. He dropped the staff in surprised, tripping and falling onto the snow just as the storm disappeared entirely into it, revealing an utterly bewildered boy and two dragons behind, far behind, between the trees. The figure was nowhere to be seen.

Hiccup rushed over to Jack, just as the veins vanished from the boy's arms. The staff calmed down as well, no longer the violent, almost uncontrollable wooden stick it was before.

"What in Odin Almighty's right name were you thinking?!" Hiccup yelled smacking the boy in the head.

"Ow! What was that about?! And where did you go?"

"Where did I go? Where did YOU go! When the storm came up, Toothless and I were bringing Peka into the forest and when I turned around you were walking into the storm like a mad man!"

"Wha-what…" Jack turned to look at the two concerned dragons rushing towards him. It was only then that he realised that was in the centre of the field, far away from where they were originally standing.

"I tried to go after you but the wind got stronger when I tried to get closer…" Hiccup's words trailed off, his logical mind rattling in his head for a reason he could not find. Even so, he knew it wasn't the time to think about this, the bizarre storm could come back at any moment. "I'm glad to see you're okay." He reached out his hand towards the boy. "You are okay, right?"

The boy looked towards his arms, then towards his friend. "…Yeah." He nodded.

"Then let's get out of here before something even crazier happens."

* * *

 

A few hours later on the high seas, the group spotted the island they've been heading for: Dragon Island. Even from a distance, the screeching and cries of over tens of thousands dragons could be heard, and a multitude of colours decorated the whole island in shades of blue, green, brown and red. As Jack guided the group towards the island, Hiccup made sure to inform them to keep low as they head closer, remembering the accidental return migration he let off the year before. They were just about to start their decent onto secluded part of the beach when Peka steer away to the left, whizzing off towards the land.

Afraid to lose sight of the dragon once again, they followed after it. However, this time, the gronkle seemed to know where she was going. Eventually, they followed her to a small, less populated part of the island that was nearer to the sea, a small beach that instead of sand, was covered primarily of what appears to be rocks, pebbles and gravel. The boys watched and followed as the gronkle sniffed its way down the rocky path, reaching a cluster of boulders, before digging into the ground around it. After a quick pile of sediments beside the hole. Peka rose, and in its mouth was a piece of dirt covered fabric.

Hiccup coaxed the object from the dragon's mouth, sweeping of the dirt as he examined the item that the little dragon had dug up. Dirty, battered, and wet, one could still make out what it used to be. An orange scarf, decorated with floral patterns and figures of tiny dragons.

"A scarf?" Jack asked, confused. "What's it doing all the way out here?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it washed up here from somewhere."

"Maybe… Peka, is this Excellinor's?"

Peka perked up hearing its owner's name, wagging its round tail in confirmation.

'We tried to fly there ourselves but we didn't make it very far.' Hiccup recalled the little girl saying.

He connected the dots, trying to make sense of the whole situation.

"Excellinor said she wanted to see the other dragons, and that she and Peka tried to fly there themselves. They must have lost it while they were trying to get here. "Hiccup deduced. "Peka must have been worrying about the scarf, and figured out it would have washed up on Dragon Island, so she- "

"She wanted us to guide her here to retrieve it back." Jack finished.

"Exactly."

Peka nodded, seemingly understanding what the two boys had meant. She bounded along the rocky beach, itching to head back the way they came.

"So we came all this way, got caught in a weird storm, to get caught in ANOTHER, EVEN WEIRDER storm, and then fly our tired bodies here just for this?!" Jack yelled, gesturing to the soggy wet pile in Hiccup's hands.

Hiccup just laughed. "It seems so. This must've been precious to her." He petted the little one as she returned from her victory stride. "A dragon always gets what it wants huh, Peka?"

Peka purred in agreement.

"Well then, I think it's about time we complete our little quest and head back. If there's no other problems on the way back we should be able to make it before night falls."

Jack agreed. "You don't mind if I ride with you, would you? I think all the flying is finally getting to me."

"Not at all, climb on up." It had been an arduous journey, combing the land and sea to find Peka, he wasn't surprise that the white haired boy would be exhausted by now. Giving it a pat, Hiccup steadied himself on Toothless, with Jack settling himself for the flight.

"You know, did I tell you the story about the time Toothless left me to find my helmet the last Snoggletog?"

"Toothless did that?"

"It's a long story which I'll tell you on the way home."

Toothless' ears pricked up at the sound of 'home', eager to head back to his comfort zone over the yonder too. The boys and the dragons quietly took off, leaving the mass of dragons undisturbed in their habitat. They were having such a smooth and relaxing flight that they didn't notice as they passed by the cluster of islands, that one particular island had mysteriously lost all its trees.

* * *

 

As the Sun settled on the second and final day of their short adventure, the heroes finally arrived home. A warm welcome from the villagers greeted the gang as they reached Berk, the Night Fury's large wings casting a large shadow upon their decent. Unsurprisingly, Excellinor, who was worried when they didn't return in the morning, was first to run up to the group, and naturally, she was at first confused to why Peka had return with them.

Hiccup reached into his bag, handing the scarf to the little girl. "It's a little messed up now, but nothing a good wash and a few stiches won't fix."

"My scarf! I thought I lost it!"

"The little one got us to go all the way to Dragon Island to get it for you. It must have been important."

"My mother made it for me for my birthday, and I really like it a lot. But for you to go all the way there to get it for me?" The little girl gestured her dragon towards her. "Come here you little rascal, apologise to Hiccup."

"It's fine, don't worry about it." He smiled. "I'm glad you got your scarf back. But next time you wanna fly out to Dragon Island, ask an adult first."

She nodded, and gave him a cheeky smile, before running off with her companion towards her friends. "Thank you guys!" She waved.

Hiccup waved back, giving a slight chuckle as he watched the children surround Toothless with handfuls of goodies, and realises that Jack wasn't with him. Looking around, he noticed his other companion had walked off by himself.

"Jack? Where are you going?"

Jack turned around, his expression looked completely tired. "I'm just, going back to the house. Just a bit dizzy, you know? Must've been Reptile's bad flying." He joked.

"Hey, you ok there?" Hiccup asked. "Do you want me to follow you?"

Not looking back, Jack waved to his friend. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I just need some rest." He assured him, staggering away. "I'll see you at home."

"Yeah…" He replied, unsure of whether he should go after him. But before he could decide, the rest of the children had gathered around him, pleading him to tell the story of his newest adventure.

Dinner was quiet and awkward, other than Stoick's endless ranting about caution and safety. Jack had skipped dinner and went straight to bed, which was unusual since the boy was always the hyperactive one out of the both of them, and Toothless had followed soon after he was done eating. As Hiccup laid in his bed, he thought about the storm, and the things that happened the past couple of weeks. So many things had happened, so many mysterious things that occurred the day he met the boy.

Hiccup tilted his head up, looking towards the direction of Jack. The boy's back was facing him as the hammock swayed slightly from the wind.

But why? He's been around him for weeks; surely he would have noticed something unusual. Only then did he realise, he had never questioned the existence of the boy. The flying, the magic, he never had a single thought about it, accepted it like nothing was wrong. There was only one time he had asked him, back at the cliffs on the day they met, but even Jack himself hadn't a clue of his identity. In fact, he had forgotten that he found him in a frozen lake all together, supposedly dead as a matter of fact too. Under any ordinary circumstance, a situation like that would be hard to forget. It was like his mind was trying to make him avoid the subject all together.

But before Hiccup could strain his brain about it any longer, he suddenly felt a touch on his shoulder, and a surge of fatigue drained away his thoughts, drifting out of consciousness before he even noticed the mysterious silhouette that appeared by his bedside.

"It's better you don't think about it, boy."

It walked towards Jack, its footsteps soundless and presence unseen. The figure bent down, gently caressed the sleeping boy's face, its touch oblivious as he continued to dream.

"I leave for a couple of weeks and that silly old man had to start doing things on his own." It whispered to itself. "I see a meeting brewing in the near future..."

Sighing, the figure look towards Hiccup, and then to Jack one last time, before it faded away into the night.

* * *

 

The following morning, Hiccup and Jack continued their day hanging out in the forest behind Berk. With a handful of assorted herbs from Gothi, Hiccup was well enough to wander around on his own, though he strangely couldn't recall what happened the night before. Jack was back to his merry active self, almost the opposite from when they had returned to Berk, free to run around and wander since Hiccup was better.

"Okay. I've got some firewood we can use for lunch..."

Hiccup walked into the small clearing they've been resting in, only to find Jack and Toothless running around all over the place, whooping and hollering as the dragon chased the boy. "Jack!"

"Oh great you're back!" The boy scurried over to him like an excited little child. "Hiccup, check this out!"

Hiccup sighed. "You should be helping me get ready instead of playing around, or at least be training like you should be! I've already told you to set up the mat and ready the food but-Toothless!" He called out to beast, pointing as it tried to sneak away from the crime. "Bad dragon you should've known better!"

"I'll work on lunch Hic don't worry." The boy replied, but from the sparkle in his eye Hiccup knew otherwise." But first, you have to see this!"

Jack hopped a few feet back from where Hiccup was standing and held out his staff. Flicking it to his left, a mass of white and blue sparks burst from the tip, and with a twirl, a patch of snow came together to form an oddly shaped Viking shield made out of ice, plopping on to the ground. Before Hiccup could say anything, he waved his staff to the right, and a swirling cloud of frost started to form in the air, but this time accumulating itself into a tiny ice bird, which flew freely for a few moments before bursting in a confetti of freshly fallen snow.

Jack grinned at his friend, his bewildered look only adding fuel to his successful surprise. "Toothless and I found this out while you were gone. I can make snow into stuff now!"

((Found out? More like attacked me with it.)) Toothless huffed.

"When were you able to do that? The last magical…thing you've done at such any scale was when we were out at the cliffs. I thought you said that was just a fluke."

"Don't ask me. After the incident with the snow tornado…storm…whatchacallit, I feel like my powers have increased."

Even if it was amazing that Jack was able to create something out of thin air, the artistic side of Hiccup couldn't help but criticise the badly made creations. The shield wasn't circular, or even a known shaped, for it bent awkwardly on the left side as if a big sized man had squished it with his tooshie. A couple of insightful dents donned the ice formation like it was pelted with stones, adding to its amateur characteristics.

He didn't even want to start on the exploding bird.

Hiccup breathed in deeply, containing all the comments he wanted to say. "I'm going to the river to get water. Toothless, make sure he doesn't run off, I have had enough of searching for quite a while. And Jack," In the corner of his eye, he watched as the shield slowly disintegrate, reducing itself back to snow. "I'm still not sure how to respond to your...ur...surprise, but regardless, I expect you to work harder now that your powers have grown."

Jack gave him a cheeky salute. "With full attentiveness and participation, sir!" Then bounded off towards Toothless to continue their battle, "Just not right now!"

Hiccup watched, as Toothless tackled the screeching boy in the distance, only for him to wriggle out of the dragons grasp and continue their play-fight in the snow. It was clear to him that the white hair boy was becoming more and more of a handful. Sighing again, he walked away, carrying the handful of canteens in his arms.

"Maybe I'm just not a good teacher?" Hiccup groaned as he filled the canteens. The river was cold and stinging from the winter air. Patches of thin ice collected along the sides and formed among the slower moving current. Hiccup watched as a thin sliver of ice appeared ever so slightly near the bank, only to break off and disintegrate as it floated into the faster water.

"Just like my progress." He grumbled, "You think you're getting somewhere and then another problem shows up."

Hiccup thought about his other attempts at training feisty teens, back at the academy. Even though there were more of them, and were definitely more hot-blooded than Jack, especially Snotlout and the twins, things still worked out because over there, he had another person helping him out. His trusted ally, Astrid. Out of all the teens. Astrid was the only one who had any sensible thoughts which didn't include explosions or any 'normal' vikingness, other than Fishlegs of course, who despite his intelligence however was too timid to counteract the trio's madness. She was always second-in-charge when he was busy or not around, and wasn't shy to point out good critics in his works. She was pretty much in charge of the academy now with Hiccup's unexplained no show.

'Maybe Astrid could help him teach Jack too?' Hiccup thought.

Astrid was direct, Astrid was determined. Astrid could easily pummel Jack to the floor and make him heel…On second thought, Astrid wasn't a really good teacher.

But that wasn't the reason why he had been avoiding her, or the rest of the gang.

"Thank goodness she isn't around." muttered Hiccup.

"Who isn't around?"

Hiccup's body froze. He knew that voice too well. Slowly, he turned around.

"Oh..." He said. "Hey, Astrid..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :) A favorite or review is always appreciated.
> 
> More to come soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :) A favorite or review is always appreciated.
> 
> More to come soon!


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